Northeastern gains NCAA baseball berth
For the eighth time in program history and the first time since 2003, the Northeastern University baseball team is headed to the NCAA tournament as the Huskies received one of the event’s 33 at-large bids during yesterday’s Selection Show.
Northeastern (36-19), which is the two-time defending Colonial Athletic Association regular-season champion, drew the No.3 seed in the Raleigh Regional and will open its road to Omaha on Friday at 2 p.m. against second-seeded Auburn (39-21). The Huskies are familiar with the Tigers this season as the two teams played three nonconference games in March, when NU handed then-undefeated Auburn its first loss of the year behind 72⁄3 no-hit innings by Sean Mellen of Norwood.
The double-elimination Raleigh Regional also includes top-seeded host, North Carolina State (40-16), and fourth-seeded Army (36-22).
NU’s selection marks the program’s first at-large bid since 1973 during the pre-automatic bid era.
Led by the 2017 and 2018 CAA Coach of the Year, Mike Glavine of Billerica, NU exited its runner-up finish at last week’s CAA tournament with the conference’s highest RPI (No. 35) and a program record 36 victories — 22 coming on the road. NU won nine games against the RPI top-100, including three wins against SEC programs.
Defending national champion Florida (42-17) is No. 1 overall in the 64-team field, which included only two other New England schools, UConn and Hartford.
Winners from each of the 16 regionals advance to eight best-of-three super regionals. Those winners move on to the College World Series in Omaha.
Tennis: Wawrinka out, Djokovic advances
Like Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka is a past French Open champion still working his way back into form after surgery.
Both were in first-round action at Roland Garros in Paris, but unlike Djokovic, who won in straight sets, Wawrinka could not summon and sustain the sort of high-level play that has carried him to major titles in Paris and elsewhere. Returning to a place where he won the title in 2015 and made it back to the final a year ago, Wawrinka bowed out with a 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 loss to 67th-ranked Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain.
Djokovic — a former No. 1 now ranked 22nd, his worst spot since 2006 — beat 134th-ranked qualifier Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, quickly recovering after dropping the opening two games.
Misc.: Liverpool adds Fabinho to midfield
Liverpool has reached a deal to sign Brazilian midfielder Fabinho from Monaco in a transfer reportedly worth 50 million euros ($58 million) . . . .
Will Power earned $2,525,454 for winning the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500. The overall purse for the 33 drivers in Sunday’s race was $13,063,073 . . . .
Josh Sargent scored in his American debut, fellow 18-year-old Tim Weah added a goal in his second international match and a young United States team beat Bolivia 3-0 in a men’s soccer exhibition in Chester, Pa. Christian Pulisic, the 19-year-old star from nearby Hershey, looked heavy-legged at the end of a long club season as he played his first international match for U.S. since its World Cup elimination.