Afternoon Sports Brief - Brewers Randy Wolf hopes to turn things around tonight facing the Giants Bumgarner

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MILWAUKEE - Randy Wolf hopes he can turn things around tonight, when his Milwaukee Brewers host the San Francisco Giants.

Wolf is coming off a rough start at Houston last week in which he gave up seven runs in a season low four innings of an 8-3 Brewers loss. The left handed Wolf is 2-4 overall with a 6.38 ERA. The Giants will put up left hander Madison Bumgarner. He’s 5-3 with a 3.10 ERA. Bumgarner is coming off a loss to Saint Louis last Wednesday in which he gave four runs in seven and a third innings. He’s 3-1 lifetime against Milwaukee, with an ERA of just 1.27 against the Crew. San Francisco is second in the National League West at 21-20, seven games behind the front running LA Dodgers. Milwaukee is five games behind first place Saint Louis in the Central but the Brewers are at 17-24, in second- to last. And after dominating at home a year ago, the Brew Crew is just 10-11 at Miller Park this season.

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Meanwhile, Wolf will get his personal catcher tonight even though the other catcher is among the Brewers’ hottest hitters. George Kottaras normally catches Wolf to give Jonathan Lucroy a breather and because Wolf and Lucroy have never quite gotten along as a battery unit. Lucroy has the majors’ best batting average with runners in scoring position, and he’s coming off a career high seven RBI game yesterday in which he homered twice and belted his first grand slam. But manager Ron Roenicke says Kottaras is a good hitter as well and Lucroy needs a break from behind the plate every once in awhile. Also tonight against San Francisco, Corey Hart will start at first base. And Rickey Weeks, in the biggest slump of his career, is back at second after having yesterday off. He remains in the sixth spot in the batting order.

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UW-River Falls second baseman Hayley Buchanan has been named to the softball coaches’ All American first team and her teammate Rosa Tusa made the national second squad. Buchanan, a junior, batted .378 with 62 hits and 39 runs scored. She belted three homers with 19 RBI’s. Tusa, a senior right-hander, had 23 wins this spring with a 1.62 ERA. And she was named the WIAC’s pitcher of the year.

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The Big Ten released its conference football schedules today for 2015 and 2016. And the Badgers will not play Iowa either of those years. The Badger-Hawkeye rivalry was among the hottest for both schools, after they went 42-42-2 over the years. But with the new division alignment, and both teams in opposite groups, the Badgers did not play Iowa last year. They won’t face each other again until November of 2013 at Iowa City. They’ll play in Madison in 2014, but they’re not on each other’s schedules in 2015 and ’16. Michigan, also in the opposite division, is on the new schedule in both years. The Badgers will play at Ann Arbor in 2015, and will host the Wolverines in ’16. 2015 is also the first time that Wisconsin will play both Michigan and Ohio State in the same season since 2010.

Tags: wisconsin sports, sports, brewers, baseball, badgers