Dramatic, triumphant return to mound for USF’s Joey Carney

Pitcher put his career on hold to aid ailing mom, who later died

SAN FRANCISCO — Joey Carney, who interrupted his college baseball career last season to help his terminally ill mother, made his return to the pitching mound Saturday.

“I can’t describe the words,” his father, Dale, told the Los Angeles Times. “I see him on the mound, and in my mind I’m seeing a little white dove with him. Sorry, I’m just very emotional.”

Carney, a senior at USF, donated about 40 percent of his liver to his mother, Paula, in June. She died about a month later at age 50.

Saturday, before he threw his first pitch, Carney looked to the heavens and kissed the cross on the necklace he wears under his uniform. He did that before each of his three innings — and emerged with the first pitching victory of his career, a 7-6 win over Northern Colorado.

Entering the game in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and no outs, Carney allowed only one run to score. The Dons, trailing 6-4, scored twice in the eighth inning to tie the game, then won it in the ninth.

Carney, who graduated from Mills High in Millbrae, allowed no hits in his three innings.

Swimming

Olympian Ryan Murphy captured two individual events and swam on a winning relay team as No. 2 Cal remained unbeaten by defeating No. 11 Stanford 136-105 in Berkeley.

Murphy won the 200 individual medley in 1:44.85 — a pool record — and took the 200 backstroke in 1:42.37. He also teamed with Connor Hoppe, Matthew Josa and Pawel Sendyk to win the 200 medley relay in 1:25.61, another pool best.

Rugby

Cal mounted a secondhalf surge but could not prevent its first loss of the year as the Bears fell to British Columbia 2817 to commence the 2017 “World Cup” series.

Dylan Audsley scored n 12 points and St. Mary’s defense came on strong as the unbeaten and No. 3 Gaels scored a 27-12 victory over No. 4 BYU. St. Mary’s is 120.

Tennis

Fourth-ranked Cal suffered its first loss of the year as fifth-ranked North Carolina won 4-2 in the quarterfinal round of the ITA National Men’s Team Indoor Championship in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Bears (4-1) will next play UCLA in Sunday’s consolation bracket.