Home runs lift Cal over Stanford
Andrew Vaughn hit his 19th home run, one shy of the Pac-12 lead, as Cal beat No. 3 Stanford 4-3 at Sunken Diamond in the opener of a three-game Big Series.
The game was scoreless before the Cardinal scored three unearned runs in the fifth. The Golden Bears responded with three runs in the sixth on Vaughn’s tworun homer and Jonah Davis’ solo shot, his 10th of the year.
The loss snapped an eightgame winning streak for Stanford (31-6, 12-4 Pac-12).
Tanner Dodson broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning with an RBI single for Cal (24-15, 10-9). Dodson worked two hitless innings for his 10th save.
Stanford’s Beau Branton extended his hitting streak to 10 games, but also hit into a game-ending double play on which he didn’t initially run, claiming catcher’s interference.
Basketball: LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball are leaving their Lithuania team by mutual agreement.
BC Prienu Vytautas on Thursday announced the departure of the younger brothers of Lakers rookie guard Lonzo Ball. The team says LiAngelo injured an ankle and LaMelo has been bothered by back pain.
Lithuanian basketball writer Donatas Urbonas said on Twitter that father LaVar Ball told him he was upset over LaMelo’s diminished playing time.
LiAngelo, 19, averaged 12.6 points and 21.2 minutes in 14 games. LaMelo, 16, averaged 6.5 points and 12.4 minutes in eight games.
LiAngelo left UCLA in December after he was suspended for shoplifting during the Bruins’ trip to China. He has declared for the NBA draft. LaMelo left high school to turn pro.
1 Stanford recruit Jenna Brown was named the National High School Senior Girls’ Basketball Athlete of the Year by the National High School Coaches Association.
Brown, a 5-foot-10 point guard who missed her junior season with a knee injury,
averaged 24 points a game while leading the Lovett School in Atlanta to a 25-5 record and the quarterfinals of the state tournament.
Obituary: Sachio Kinugasa, the 5-foot-9, 165-pound Japanese third baseman who in 1987 played in his 2,131st consecutive game to break Lou Gehrig’s record, died Monday at age 71 of colon cancer. Cal Ripken Jr. broke Kinugasa’s record (2,215 games) nine years later, with Kinugasa in attendance in Kansas City, Mo.
Kinugasa played for the Hiroshima Toyo Carpfor 17 years despite broken bones, slumps and age.
His 504 home runs are tied for seventh in Japanese baseball history, and he’s tied for fifth with 2,543 hits.
Tennis: Top-ranked Rafael Nadal cruised into the Barcelona Open quarterfinals by defeating fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1, 6-3.
Soccer: Antoine Griezmann scored late for 10-man Atlético Madrid to draw 1-1 at Arsenal in the first leg of their Europa League semifinal. The second leg is in the Spanish capital next Thursday.