Fans spew racial insults
The University of the South in Tennessee is working to identify students who leveled racial epithets at members of the visiting Emmanuel College men’s lacrosse team during a game.
In a letter posted on the school’s website, University of the South Vice Chancellor and President Reuben E. Brigety II said some of the school’s students who attended Saturday’s game hurled “appalling epithets directed at people of color” at the Emmanuel team, whose roster includes White, Black, Asian American, Native American and Latino players.
“So pronounced were the shouted slurs in the third quarter that the game officials on the field ordered that Sewanee fans be cleared before play could continue,” wrote Brigety, who is Black.
The University of the South is also known as Sewanee, the Tennessee city where the school is located. After the game, Brigety spoke with members of the Emmanuel team and apologized for the students’ behavior.
“I told them that Sewanee does not tolerate such behavior, and that we considered the assaults on their dignity completely unacceptable,” Brigety wrote.
Batter’s box: RF Brian O’Grady (.915 OPS) hit his first two homers of the spring, drove in four runs and stole his first base. … SS CJ Abrams (.846 OPS) hit a grand slam, his second homer of the spring. Both were oppositefield shots. … LF Tommy Pham (.406 OPS) went 2-for-3 with a run scored. … Jorge Mateo (1.071 OPS) went 2-for-3 with a triple, two RBIs, two runs and a walk. He started at second base and moved to center field. … 1B Eric Hosmer (.658 OPS) went 1-for-2 with a sacrifice fly. … Jurickson Profar (.246 OPS) was 0-for-4 and played center field and first base. … LF Tucupita Marcano (1.214 OPS) was 2-for-2 with a double.
Balls and strikes: LHP Blake Snell (0.00 ERA) pushed his workload to three innings, allowing just one hit while striking out two. He threw 29 of his 44 pitches for strikes and has thrown six scoreless innings this spring. … RHPs Emilio Pagan (6.75 ERA) and Aaron Northcraft (0.00 ERA) both struck out two in a scoreless inning. Pagan stranded a leadoff double while Northcraft stranded a walk. … RHP Reiss Knehr (3.60) allowed two runs on three hits in an inning and RHP Parker Markel (4.91 ERA) allowed a run on one hit and a walk in his inning. … RHP Chase Johnson (0.00) struck out one in a perfect eighth.
Extra bases: Given all their bumps, bruises and aches, the Padres had to have been holding their breath when Pham slid into Brewers C Manny Piña on Hosmer’s sacrifice fly in the first inning. Pham was slow to get up, but stayed in the game. Piña did initially, too, but exited before the top of the second for precautionary reasons. Brewers manager Craig Counsell told reporters after the game that Piña was expected to start today.
On deck: RHP Joe Musgrove will make his third Cactus League start at 1:10 p.m. today against the White Sox at Peoria Stadium. LHP MacKenzie Gore is among the pitchers scheduled to follow.