Afternoon State Sports Briefs: Austin named Marquette assistant coach

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MILWAUKEE - A Marquette University men’s basketball staffer has been promoted to assistant coach.

Brad Autry has spent four years with the team as its coordinator of student-athlete development. Head coach Buzz Williams said Autry was the first person he hired when he arrived when he became the head coach in 2008. And he says Autry is quote, “more than deserving of the promotion.” Before going to Marquette, Autry had spent about 15 years in various posts at Baylor, Tulsa, and Arkansas-Little Rock.

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Saint Thomas will play for the national championship tomorrow at the NCAA Division III baseball World Series near Appleton. The Tommies from Saint Paul eliminated SUNY Cortland of New York 7-6 this afternoon in the final game of the loser’s bracket. Saint Thomas will face either Marietta of Ohio or Wheaton of Massachusetts. Those two teams are squaring off this afternoon.

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Los Angeles outfielder Matt Kemp is expected to play his first game in over two weeks, when the Dodgers host the Milwaukee Brewers again tonight. Kemp, who finished second to Ryan Braun in the MVP voting a year ago, has been out since May 15th with a strained right hamstring. He was batting .359 at the time with a dozen home runs and 28 RBI’s. Kemp went 5-for-7 in a two-game rehab assignment with Triple-“A” Albuquerque. He’s been a Brewer-killer, with an eight-game hitting streak against Milwaukee. On April 19th, Kemp homered and went 2-for-5 in a one-run Dodgers’ victory at Miller Park.

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Both the Brewers and Dodgers are using minor league fill-ins as their starting pitchers tonight. Right-hander Michael Fiers is making his big league starting debut, replacing Marco Estrada who’s on the DL with a strained quadriceps. Fiers had two scoreless relief appearances for Milwaukee last September. The Dodgers brought up right-hander Nathan Eovaldi from Double-“A” for tonight. He went 1-and-2 in 10 appearances for LA in 2011, which included six starts. The Dodgers lead the National League West with baseball’s best record at 32-16. The Brewers are 20-28 in second-to-last-place in the NL Central, four games ahead of the last-place Cubs and seven behind front-running Cincinnati.

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