Furjanic returns home to coach Woodland Hills

Matt Furjanic has coached on the college level for decades and guided Robert Morris to its first NCAA tournament appearance 37 years ago.

Now he’s coming home to be a high school coach in the WPIAL. Furjanic was hired Wednesday night to be the new boys basketball coach at Woodland Hills High School. He takes over for Odell Miller, who resigned after last season.

Furjanic, 68, has loads of experience on the college level, most recently coaching a junior college in Florida from 2000-17. He lives in Florida, but is also familiar with Woodland Hills basketball, coaching the Wolverines from 1991-95.

Furjanic became Robert Morris’ coach in 1979, shortly after the school went from a junior-college to an NCAA Division I program.

Furjanic had a 76-32 record in his four years at Woodland Hills, won two section titles and made the WPIAL playoffs all four seasons. He coached PittGreensburg after Woodland Hills, before becoming the coach at Polk State in Florida. Fur janic’ sal l-time career record is 606-411.

Soccer

Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC (18-4-11) will host its Eastern Conference quarterfinals playoff match at 7 p.m. Oct. 26 at Highmark Stadium. The opponent is to be determined. This season, the Riverhounds are unbeaten at Highmark Stadium, holding a 10-0-7 league record and a 12-0-7 record in all matches at the venue.

Harness racing

Tony Hall enjoyed a splendid day at The Meadows, collecting seven victories that included a four-race, mid-card winning streak as well as a triumph in the feature with Trixie Dust. Hall’s haul included a pair of wins each for trainers Scott Betts and Spencer Kahrig.

Boxing

Patrick Day died four days after sustaining head injuries in a fight with Charles Conwell. Promoter Lou DiBella said Day died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He was 27. Day had brain surgery after being knocked out in the 10th round Saturday night at Wintrust Arena.

Tennis

Fourth-seeded Stan Wawrinka outlasted Feliciano Lopez, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (4), to reach the quarterfinals of the European Open at Antwerp, Belgium. … Belinda Bencic won six of the final seven games and beat Polona Hercog, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

Baseball

The bat used by Babe Ruth to slug his 500th career home run in 1929 is going up for auction, nearly 75 years after he gave it to a friend whose family has kept it ever since. Ruth became the first player to reach the coveted plateau on Aug. 11, 1929.