Afternoon State Sports Briefs: UWM plays TCU in CBI Invite

• UW-Milwaukee

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FT. WORTH, Tex. - The UW-Milwaukee men will play at Texas Christian tonight in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational.

The Panthers are 20-13. They’ve won five-of-their-last-six, after falling to Butler in the second round of last week’s Horizon League Tournament. TCU is 17-14, after losing to Colorado State in the quarter-finals of the Mountain West Tournament. The Horned Frogs are making their first post-season appearance since 2005 – and they’ve not had a home game in the March tournaments since 1999. TCU is led by senior guard Hank Thorns, who averages 13 points a game. He’s seventh in the Mountain West in scoring – and he has made at least one three-pointer in 19 straight games. Milwaukee has three starters averaging in double figures. Tony Meier leads the way with 11 points a game, followed by Kaylon Williams at 10-point-eight and James Haarsma at 10-point-seven. Tonight’s winner will play either Western Illinois or Oregon State in the CBI quarter-finals next Monday night.

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The UW-Stevens Point baseball team is ranked fifth in this week’s Division III poll from D3Baseball.com. The Pointers are 2-0 in their young season, with a pair of wins over Gustavus Adolphus. UW-Whitewater is ranked 11th at 2-2. Carthage is at No. 14 – and they don’t start their season until Saturday at Dakota Wesleyan. Oshkosh also received votes. Marietta of Ohio is at No. 1

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The WIAC has named 30 people to its inaugural Hall-of-Fame class. The hall is being created as part of the league’s 100th anniversary celebration. The inductees will be honored at a banquet on August fourth in Madison. The class includes some former pro athletes and coaches who’ve moved on to bigger schools. Former Major League pitcher Jarrod Washburn of UW-Oshkosh is part of the new Hall-of-Fame, along with NBA player-and-coach Terry Porter of UW-Stevens Point, and former NFL player Clint Kriewaldt of the Pointers. UW-Madison men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan and UW-Milwaukee men’s coach Rob Jeter were both honored for their years at Platteville. Former Badger women’s coach Lisa Stone was named for her coaching years at UW-Eau Claire. And the class includes Max Sparger, the WIAC’s commissioner from 1971-93.

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University of Wisconsin junior Molly Spence has been named the Big Ten Conference softball player-of-the-week. The designated player hit four homers in five games last weekend at the Wolf Pack Softball Classic in Reno Nevada. Spence drove in 10 runs, and scored four times. She had a .529 batting average during the weekend, when a one-point-eight-seven-three on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

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Stef Wilmore of Alverno is the softball position player-of-the-week in the Northern Athletics Conference. The junior catcher and infielder hit .533 in four games last week with two homers, two doubles, and seven RBI’s. And Wilmore tied the Alverno school record for the most career homers. Jori Cicale of Dominican is the league’s top pitcher. Also, the NAC recognized Cody Strebig of Edgewood as the men’s tennis player-of-the-week. Strebig won both singles’ and doubles’ match as Edgewood fell to Farleigh Dickinson-Florham.

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Levi Ney of UW-Platteville has been named the WIAC’s baseball position player-of-the-week. Ney, a senior outfielder, homered twice in three games last week. He went 5-12 with a double, a triple, eight RBI’s, and four runs scored. Garrett Scray of UW-La Crosse is the baseball pitcher-of-the-week. The senior right-hander went 2-0 during the week with a point-six-eight ERA. And he struck out 11 batters in 13-and-a-third innings.

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Milwaukee Brewers’ starter Shaun Marcum is said to be making good progress with a sore throwing shoulder suffered early in Spring Training. Manager Ron Roenicke said Marcum was scheduled to have a bullpen throwing session off a mound today. If all goes well, another session will take place on Thursday – and then Marcum will be re-evaluated. The skipper says everything’s on track for Marcum to make his first regular season start in early April. Roenicke said the pitch count would have to be lower than normal. Meanwhile, right-fielder Corey Hart appears to be on schedule for a return on Opening Day. He’s no longer on crutches, eight days after he had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. Roenicke also said reliever Juan Perez is still hospitalized after he suffered a partially-collapsed left lung. He said it happened when Perez was sleeping and he woke up with pain in his side. And Perez has no idea why it took place. The Brewers were playing split-squad games this afternoon against Oakland and Seattle.

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