Overnight state sports briefs: WIAC baseball tournament this weekend in Stevens Point

• Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

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STEVENS POINT - Three teams will compete in the WIAC baseball tournament on Friday and Saturday at UW-Stevens Point.

The Pointers earned the hosting rights and the top seed by winning the WIAC regular season title this past weekend with a double-header victory over Stout. It was Stevens Point’s second regular season crown in the last three years. Second-seeded Whitewater will face Number-three Oshkosh in the tournament opener on Friday. The Pointers will then face the winner. The double-elimination tourney continues through Saturday, and the champion will get an automatic berth in the NCAA Division-Three III Championship.

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The University of Wisconsin’s new swimming coach comes from the same school the previous coach left for. Arizona assistant Whitney Hite was named today to replace men’s-and-women’s swim coach Eric Hansen, who left a few weeks ago to take over the Arizona program. UW athletic director Barry Alvarez said Hansen helped his old school find a replacement. Hite spent two years at Arizona after serving for three years as the head coach at Washington. There, he led the Huskie women to their best NCAA finish, taking 12th in 2008. Hite also helped the Washington men to a top-16 national showing in 2009, the best for the Huskies in the last 30 years. He has also been an assistant at Georgia and California.

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The Green Bay Gamblers will try to become the first U.S. Hockey League team since 1994 to win back-to-back playoff titles. The junior league Gamblers have returned to the Clark Cup Finals after eliminating Cedar Rapids three-games-to-one. Green Bay clinched the Eastern Conference crown with a 3-1 home victory yesterday. Brady Hjelle had 30 saves for the Gamblers, who will now face Dubuque in the best-of-five league finals which begin Friday and Saturday nights at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon. Dubuque took the Western Conference championship yesterday with a 3-2 overtime win over Sioux Falls.

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Pewaukee native Mark Wilson remains third in the PGA’s Fed-Ex Cup season point standings. Wilson still has 12-hundred-seven points, after missing the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship at Charlotte this past weekend. Bubba Watson remains at Number-One and Luke Donald is still second. Phil Mickelson is fourth, 52 points behind Wilson. Steve Stricker of Madison dropped two spots to 32nd in the Fed-Ex totals, and Jerry Kelly fell four spots to 63rd. Both took last weekend off. Appleton native J.P. Hayes slipped two places to 178th after missing the cut at Charlotte. In the World Golf Rankings, Lee Westwood remains at Number-One. Stricker is still 9th. Wilson dropped four spots to 55th. Kelly rose four places to 123rd. Hayes is 319th.

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