Morning State Sports Briefs: Division III tourney continues Appleton

• NCAA

NCAA

Talk about it

APPLETON - Four teams are still playing in the NCAA Division III Baseball World Series at Fox Cities Stadium.

Saint Thomas of Minnesota will play Cortland of New York this afternoon in the final game of the loser’s bracket. The winner advances to the national title contest, while the loser goes home. Also today, Marietta of Ohio will play Wheaton of Massachusetts. Wheaton is unbeaten in the tournament while Marietta has one loss. The championship is expected to be decided tomorrow at Fox Cities’ Stadium. Yesterday, Cortland eliminated Whitworth of Spokane 5-4. Marietta sent Webster home with a 12-7 decision. And Wheaton handed Saint Thomas its first loss of the double-elimination tourney, 13-9.

_____________________________________________________________________

In the Midwest League, the Beloit Snappers will close out their series at Kane County with a late morning contest. Beloit became only the third team to win its 30th game of the first half yesterday, 15-9 over the Cougars in 12 innings. The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are three games up on second-place Beloit in the Midwest League’s Western Division. The Rattlers are 33-and-18, after winning at Peoria 3-1 on Memorial Day. Those two will close out their series tonight. There’s only one other matinee today. Dayton is at West Michigan. Tonight, Burlington hosts Clinton. Quad Cities plays at Cedar Rapids. South Bend is at Great Lakes. Bowling Green plays at Fort Wayne. And Lansing is at home against Lake County. Lansing opens the new week with a nine-and-a-half game lead in the Eastern Division over Bowling Green and South Bend.

______________________________________________________________________

Green Bay Packers’ fans will get a chance to watch their team practice tomorrow. The second-of-three public workouts during the Packers’ organized team activities will begin at 11:30 at Ray Nitschke Field, weather permitting. If it’s raining, the team will move inside to the Don Hutson Center, in which case the workout would be closed to fans. Meanwhile, the starting left tackle spot appears to be Marshall Newhouse’s to lose. Newhouse, a third-year pro, started 13 games a year ago in place of the injured Chad Clifton – who was cut during the off-season. Newhouse will have a couple of players breathing down his neck for the starting spot – second-year pro Derek Sherrod, and seventh-round rookie Andrew Datko.

______________________________________________________________________

In Wisconsin high school sports, regionals begin today for both spring baseball and softball. Sectionals will be played next week in both sports, with the state tournaments during the second week of June. Girls’ soccer regionals don’t begin until Thursday. Their state tournament opens June 14th. Sectionals in boys’ golf will be played today and tomorrow. And the first state tournament of spring season begins on Thursday, when the boys’ individual tennis tourney gets underway in Madison. The state high school track-and-field meet takes place this Friday and Saturday in La Crosse.

______________________________________________________________________

Steve Stricker of Madison dropped two places to 10th in the new World Golf Rankings released yesterday. Stricker did not play in the PGA's Crowne Plaza Invitational during the weekend. Pewaukee native Mark Wilson tied for 66th in that event, and he fell two spots to 36th in the World. Jerry Kelly of Madison tied for 57th at Fort Worth Texas, and he dropped one spot this week to Number-124. Luke Donald moved back into the top spot of the World Rankings, and Rory McIlroy fell to second. In the Fed-Ex Cup season point standings, Wilson dropped one place to 14th. Stricker is 21st, same as a week ago. Kelly fell one spot to Number-124. Jason Dufner remains first in the Fed-Ex totals. Zach Johnson, who won the Crowne Plaza tournament, jumped 15 spots to third in the Fed-Ex standings. And he rose 10 spots to 17th in the World Rankings.

Tags: wisconsin sports, sports, proam