Marcus Stroman ready to pitch at WBC

is all warmed up for the World Baseball Classic.

The Toronto right-hander allowed his lone spring training run during a 2

outing Sunday in the Blue Jays’ 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

“I felt great,” Stroman said. “Got to a mix of all my pitches, work on tempo and delivery.”

Stroman, coming off two perfect innings against Pittsburgh on Feb. 27, allowed four hits and had three strikeouts. He also fanned three over 31 pitches in the game with the Pirates.

“He’s been at it since Day One,” Toronto manager

said. “He’s been really good.”

Stroman will be joining a United States team that opens WBC play in Miami later this week with games against Colombia (Friday) and defending champion Dominican Republic (Saturday).

Suzuki hitless in spring debut

Now that he has

is back on the field, Miami manager

looks forward to resting him — at least once the regular season starts.

The 43-year-old Suzkui made his Grapefruit League debut on Sunday, going 0 for 2 as the Marlins’ designated hitter in a 7-7 tie with Houston.

Injuries in the Marlins outfield last season forced Mattlingly to play Suzuki in the field 78 times, significantly more than than Miami’s preseason blueprint designed.

Rosenthal scratched vs. Twins

bid to move into the rotation for the St. Louis Cardinals has hit a snag.

The Cardinals said Rosenthal has been scratched from his scheduled start on Monday against Minnesota because of muscle tightness in his right lat near his pitching arm.

Escobar becomes U.S. citizen

More than a decade after his harrowing escape from Cuba, Los Angeles Angels third baseman has passed his naturalization test to become a U.S. citizen. Escobar took the exam earlier in the week in Miami.

“The greatest thing that can happen to you is to be a citizen of this great country,” Escobar said Sunday through a translator.

Harvey shows glimpses

gave the New York Mets a glimpse of the dominant pitcher he’s been in the past.

He also showed that it might take some time to get back to that level.

Coming back from major surgery last July, the right-hander made his first spring start Sunday and opened with a perfect first inning against St. Louis. Then, the Cardinals chased him with three runs in the second.

FROM WIRE REPORTS North Carolina’s win over rival Duke ended up putting the fifth-ranked Tar Heels two games better than anyone else in the rugged Atlantic Coast Conference. Coach Roy Williams is hoping that has his team prepared for what’s to come.

“Winning the league and winning it by two games is something we’ll always be proud of,” Williams said after Saturday’s 90-83 win over the No. 17 Blue Devils. “I think it is the best league. Top to bottom, there’s no league in the country like it. Now we’ve got to back it up and do in the postseason what we did last year.”

Last year, the ACC put a record six teams in the NCAA Sweet 16, four in the Elite Eight and two in the Final Four.

The league’s final day of the regular season featured three games featuring two ranked teams — No. 15 Florida State beat No. 25 Miami 66-57, No. 8 Louisville beat No. 19 Notre Dame 71-64, and UNC’s home win — to highlight the week of action for AP Top 25 teams.

The Tar Heels (26-6, 14-4) had already clinched the No. 1 seed for the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn to start the week, but stumbled to 43 points in a loss at No. 23 Virginia. But the Cardinals’ win against the Irish ensured the Tar Heels would win the ACC regularseason crown outright, then UNC’s win later that night gave it the two-game margin in a league with a national-best seven ranked teams.

“We are where we want to be,” UNC’s Theo Pinson said.

Big upset

The week’s biggest upset involving ranked teams also came in the ACC, with Wake Forest beating the Cardinals 88-81 on Wednesday night. That, along with the Demon Deacons’ win at Virginia Tech on Saturday, moved coach Danny Manning’s program onto more solid footing in its pursuit of the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid since 2010.

And if Wake Forest can get in, that could help the ACC make good on its postrealignment goal of getting 10 bids for the first time.

Top-heavy Pac-12

The Pac-12 has three national-title contenders atop the league with No. 3 UCLA, No. 6 Oregon and No. 7 Arizona. But the Ducks managed to secure the No. 1 seed for the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.

Oregon (27-4, 16-2) beat Oregon State 80-59 on Saturday, clinching a share of the regular-season title alongside with Arizona. But the Ducks had the head-tohead tiebreaker through its 85-58 win against the Wildcats (27-4, 16-2) on Feb. 4 for the No. 1 seed.

That left the Bruins (28-3, 15-3) as the No. 3 seed after their 77-68 win against Washington State on Saturday.

That tournament begins Wednesday.

Wildcats, Wildcats

No. 2 Villanova and No. 9 Kentucky both closed out the regular season with titles.

Villanova (28-3, 15-3) beat Georgetown 81-55 and will open the Big East Tournament in New York with the top seed Thursday.

In the Southeastern Conference, Kentucky (26-5, 16-2) didn’t have an easy week. First the Wildcats had the biggest comeback of the John Calipari era by rallying from 19 down to beat Vanderbilt, then rallied from 15 down early to win at Texas A&M.

Kentucky opens the SEC Tournament as the No. 1 seed in Friday’s quarterfinals in Nashville, Tennessee.

Boilermakers on top

No. 16 Purdue wrapped up the outright Big Ten regular-season title with Tuesday’s win against Indiana, followed by Iowa’s win against No. 22 Wisconsin on Thursday.

The top-seeded Boilermakers open the Big Ten Tournament on Friday in Washington. Shockers are in No. 21 Wichita State took care of any possible question about its NCAA Tournament chances, beating Illinois State 71-51 on Sunday to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title and the automatic bid that comes with it.

Gregg Marshall’s Shockers (30-4) have won 15 straight and haven’t lost since Jan. 14.