Cozart back:

The Dayton KETTERING — Agonis Club held its 64th annual awards banquet Monday night at the Presidential Banquet Hall, honoring five men Scoochie Smith, Mark

— Alstork, Luke Kennard, Josh Myers and Jim Brooks for

— their accomplishments in sports over the past year.

Smith, the former Dayton Flyers point guard, was presented with the Joe Gavin/ Joe Quinn Memorial Award as the outstanding University of Dayton athlete.

Smith started all 32 games for the Atlantic 10 champion Flyers last season and led the team with 4.5 assists per game. He is the only threetime captain in UD basketball history.

He was a first-team Atlantic 10 pick after averaging 13.8 points per game and was part of a senior class that had the most victories in school history.

The Dr. Dave Reese Memo- rial Award for outstanding Wright State athlete went to Alstork. A Thurgood Marshall graduate, Alstork led the Raiders basketball team to 20 wins last season.

He was the team’s leading scorer (19.0 per game), and only two players in the Hori- zon League averaged more. He finished in the top 10 of the league in assists (3.5), free-throw percentage (84.6 percent) and 3-pointers per game (2.1).

“It just means glory to God for putting this opportunity in my life,” he said. “It is just an account to my hard work and dedication and all the things I do during the summer.”

After scoring 1,024 points in a WSU uniform, Alstork entered the NBA draft but has decided to withdraw. He plans to announce Wednesday where he will use his final year of eligibility. South Carolina, LSU, Illinois and Pittsburgh are his finalists.

Kennard was the third bas- ketball player to be honored. A sophomore guard at Duke last season, Kennard led the Blue Devils in scoring at 19.5 per game and was named to the John R. Wooden All-America team. The Frank- lin High grad received the Dave Hall Memorial Award as the most outstanding Dayton-area athlete attending a school outside the area.

Kennard, the ACC tournament MVP, has decided to enter the NBA draft and is projected as a first-round pick next month.

Myers, a Miamisburg grad, took home the Beno Keiter/ Russ Guera Memorial Award, which goes to the outstanding high school player in Dayton area.

Myers, an offensive line- man who was among the topranked prospects in the coun- try, graduated in December and has already begun classes at Ohio State. He took part in spring practice with the Buckeyes.

“Oh, it’s awesome — I love it here,” Myers said of the award. “The place is obvi- ously my home, so it means a lot to me to receive this award for the second time.”

Brooks received the Mike Kelly/Don Donoher Coach’s Award. This is his final season as Chaminade Julienne boys and girls tennis coach, a position he has held since 1980.

“This is a tremendous honor,” Brooks said. “I was really taken by surprise. I got this phone call and I was the pretty much in a state of shock. I’ve been hearing about this award for many years. It’s really kind of overwhelming, I have to say.”

Luke Fickell, the Cincinnati Bearcats’ first-year foot- ball coach, was the keynote speaker Monday.

He said Dayton is included with Cincinnati in the 50-mile radius he sees as his recruiting backyard.

“We know what kind of kids are in that area, what kind of clubs come from that area, what kind of cultures come from that kind of area, so that’s where we really want to focus our efforts in creating the atmosphere and the culture that we want,” Fickell said.

Reds manager CINCINNATI — Bryan Price isn’t a big fan of the statistic “exit velocity,” but he alm o st co u ldn’t avoid using the growing- in-popularity term when asked recently about Billy Hamilton’s offensive improvement.

The Reds center fielder reached base once on an error in Sunday’s 6-4 loss to Colorado. That snapped a career-high streak of 21 consecutive games in which he reached base at least once by either a hit, walk or being hit by a pitch.

Hamilton batted .312 (29for-93) with four doubles, three triples, one home run, 12 RBIs and 11 stolen bases during the surge, which pushed his overall average to .266 over his first 39 games of the season. Last season Hamilton hit .231 through his first 39 games.

So, what’s made Hamilton more of a threat at the plate? After lauding his improved command of the strike zone, Price added anobservation.

“He’s also hitting the ball harder, getting it through the infield and over the infield and for extra bases,” Price said. “He’s not necessarily swinging harder, but he’s making better contact. I guess you could say exit velocity, which is a term I’m not entirely used to, yet, but you’d have to say that, if the ball is coming off of his bat harder, he’s got better exit velocity.”

The improvement is an extension of the second half of Hamilton’s 2016 season. He batted .293 after last year’s All-Star Game, after hitting .236 in the first half.

“It’s just me learning the game and getting better,” said Hamilton, who’s in his fourth full season with the Reds and has sensed that he is, in fact, hitting the ball harder. “I’m staying square and staying through the ball.”

Left-handed pitcher Brandon Finnegan is scheduled to take another step on the road back from

Baby steps:

his left shoulder injury today when he throws from a mound for the first time since going on the disabled list April 16.

Finnegan, who was 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA in three starts before being sidelined, is scheduled to throw 20 pitches today and 35 on Saturday, he said.

“I’m excited,” he said. “We’ve been on kind of a soft track, but I feel great. I’m ready to go.”

He’s hoping to throw one more bullpen session after Saturday, followed by a session of throwing live batting practice before going out on a rehab assignment. He’s hoping to accelerate his progress. “I thought it would be 10 days and start throwing and be back in a couple of weeks,” he said.

Price believes Finnegan and right-hander Homer Bailey — who continues to work in Arizona as he tries to rebound from three surgical procedures on his right arm over the past 32 months — could return to the Reds rotation at about the same time. “He and Homer are very, very close,” Price said. “We’re shooting for between ( June) 19th and 24th for both of them — maybe a little later.”

After getting Sunday off due in part to a sore left wrist that’s plagued him for a month, shortstop Zack Cozart was back in Cincinnati’s starting lineup for Monday’s opener of the four-game, two-city Ohio Cup interleague series with Cleveland.

Price waited on Monday until Cozart underwent treatment and performed some baseball activities before filling out a lineup card.

Cozart took a five-game hitting streak (.429, 9-for21), including three multi-hit games, into Monday’s game. He had hit safely at least once in 13 of his last 14 games.