Morning State Sports Briefs: Midwest League chooses all-star game players

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Midwest League

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Seven Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and seven Beloit Snappers have been named to the Midwest League’s Western Division All-Star team.

Miguel Sano of Beloit, the Minnesota Twins’ top slugging prospect, will start at third base for the West squad. Sano leads the league with 13 homers. Greg Hopkins of the Timber Rattlers will start at second. Three Beloit position players were named as reserves for the West – infielders Tyler Grimes and Eddie Rosario, and outfielder Jhon Goncalves. The Timber Rattlers’ reserves are infielder Jason Rogers and Yadiel Rivera. Both state teams have a combined seven pitchers on the All-Star squad. They include left-hander Jason Wheeler of Beloit, and Snappers’ right-handers A-J Achter and Michael Tonkin. Wisconsin’s pitchers are right-handers Drew Gagnon, Seth Harvey, Tommy Toledo, and Mark Williams. The Midwest League All-Star Game will be played on June 19th at Kane County near Chicago. Kane County’s manager Brian Buchanan and his coaching staff will lead the West All-Stars. Lansing skipper John Tamargo Junior and his staff will lead the East.

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Junior college All-American Jameel McKay has given a verbal commitment to play for the Marquette men’s basketball team starting in the fall of 2013. McKay is a Milwaukee native who was an All-State high school player at Milwaukee Pulaski. The 6-8 McKay averaged 15 points and eight rebounds last season at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa Iowa. McKay says he has followed the Marquette program, and he’s well aware of the success that other junior college players have had under coach Buzz Williams. McKay’s coach at Indian Hills, Barrett Peery, says McKay plays a high-energy game at multiple defensive positions – and he’s strong around the rim.

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An arbitrator ruled yesterday that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had the authority to discipline four players for their alleged roles in the New Orleans Saints’ bounty system. Pennsylvania law professor Stephen Burbank only took five days to rule that Goodell has the power to punish the players under the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement from a year ago. Defensive end Anthony Hargrove, now with the Packers, was given an eight-game suspension – the second-longest of the four players punished. Hargrove is appealing his punishment. And Burbank asked the commissioner to clarify the reason for his discipline against Hargrove – who said he was only doing what his coaches told him to do by lying to NFL investigators about the Saints’ bounties for hurting offensive opponents. Meanwhile, the players’ union says it expects to appeal Burbank’s decision because it believed salary cap violations were involved in the bounty payments. And that would give Burbank the power to rule on penalties for any players involved.

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Wisconsin’s “Mister Basketball” is one of 23 players who will start trying out tomorrow for a spot on Team USA at this month’s Tournament-of-the-Americas. Sam Dekker of Sheboygan is the only Wisconsinite selected for the U.S. Under-18 national team’s training camp. Players from 13 states will take part. The Top-12 will be selected after three days of workouts, and they’ll represent the U.S. at the FIBA Under-18 Americas’ championship from June 16th-through-20th in Brazil. Dekker has received several Wisconsin player-of-the-year honors. He scored 40 points, including the game-winning three-pointer, in the state high school Division-Five championship game in March. Dekker will play for the Wisconsin Badgers this fall.

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Steve Stricker of Madison has dropped out of the Top-10 in the new World Golf Rankings released this morning. Stricker fell one spot to 11th place, after he tied for 50th at the PGA’s Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio this past weekend. Stricker – who’s still recovering from neck-and-arm injuries from a year ago – remains 21st in the Fed-Ex Cup season point standings. Pewaukee native Mark Wilson dropped three places to 39th in the new World Rankings. That’s after he tied for 66th at Muirfield Village. Wilson also dropped two places to 16th in the Fed-Ex point totals. Jerry Kelly of Madison failed to make the cut at the Memorial. He dropped two places to 124th in the Fed-Ex standings, and he fell seven spots to 163rd in the World Rankings. Luke Donald remains atop the World Rankings, and Jason Dufner is still at Number-One in the Fed-Ex point totals.

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Holmen is the Division 1 leader at the halfway point of the boys’ state high school golf tournament in Verona. Holmen shot 305 in yesterday’s first round at University Ridge. Hartland Arrowhead is in second place at 307, and Milwaukee Marquette is third at 308. Jordan Niebrugge of Homestead is the individual leader at two-under-par 70. Matt Ross of Arrowhead is one stroke back in second. In Division 2, Edgerton is the leader at 304. Green Bay Notre Dame is 11 strokes back in second. Charlie Danielson of Osceola shot a one-under-par-71 and has a one-stroke lead over Erik Danielson of Edgerton. Cuba City is the Division 3 leader at 322. Osseo-Fairchild is second at 337. Mitch Ross of Turtle Lake/Clayton is the individual leader at 77. Nate Murray of Cuba City is one stroke back in second.

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Teams in the Class-“A” Midwest League are off today. The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers extended their division lead to two games last night with a 9-8 victory over second-place Beloit. The Snappers are four games up on third-place Kane County, which got blanked by Peoria 2-nothing. Wisconsin is 36-22, and Beloit is 34-24 for the first half. Both teams were rewarded by each having seven players named to the Midwest League All-Star Game two weeks from tonight at Kane County near Chicago. Lansing tops the Eastern Division by nine-and-a-half games over second-place Bowling Green. Lansing is the only team with 40 victories in the first half, to just 17 losses.

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Two day-games are scheduled in the Northwoods League today. Duluth is hosting Mankato late this morning, and Thunder Bay is playing Alexandria in Canada. All seven Wisconsin teams will play this evening. The Lakeshore Chinooks will host Eau Claire again. The Chinooks lost their inaugural home game in Mequon last night 2-1. The Wisconsin Woodchucks host La Crosse again, on the heels of a 6-5 ‘Chucks victory in Wausau. Wisconsin Rapids will host the Madison Mallards, after Rapids won in Madison 4-3 in 11 innings. Green Bay will play at Battle Creek again, a 9-7 Green Bay victory in 11 innings last night. Also, Rochester hosts Willmar, and Saint Cloud plays at Waterloo. Waterloo is the only unbeaten team in the Northwoods League at 6-0, with a two-game North Division lead over Mankato and Duluth. Eau Claire is now the sole leader in the North Division at 4-2. Battle Creek is 2-4, and the other six teams in the division – all from Wisconsin – are 3-3.

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Former UW-Madison golfer Garrett Jones of Rewey earned a spot as a second alternate for next week’s U.S. Open. Jones fell five strokes short yesterday of getting the second-and-final Open spot at a 36-hole sectional qualifier near Chicago. Jones shot rounds of 69-and-70 to finish third. But Anthony Summers and Tim Herron grabbed the two available slots for next week’s major in San Francisco. Andy Hansen of Mequon tied for 21st at the Glen Ellyn, Illinois qualifier. Badgers’ assistant men’s golf coach Bryant Odom was 39th. Taylor Johnson, an amateur from Oconomowoc, tied for 41st. At least three other golfers with Wisconsin ties failed to make the U.S. Open from other qualifying sites. Ex-Badger Jon Turcott tied for 28th at Springfield Ohio. Former Madison La Follette High School player Andrew Steinhofer tied for 68th at Rockville, Maryland. And former Marquette star Mike Van Sickle tied for 75th at Columbus Ohio.

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SCORES

In the Midwest League…

Wisconsin 9, Beloit 8

Peoria 2, Kane County 0

Quad Cities 6, Burlington 2

Clinton 9, Cedar Rapids 3

Lansing 1, South Bend 0

Lake County 4, Fort Wayne 3 in 13 innings

Dayton 6, Bowling Green 2

West Michigan 3, Great Lakes 1

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In the Northwoods League…

Green Bay 9, Battle Creek 7 in 11 innings

Wisconsin Rapids 4, Madison 3 in 11 innings

Wisconsin 6, La Crosse 5

Eau Claire 2, Lakeshore 1

Willmar 9, Rochester 5

Thunder Bay 7, Alexandria 3

Duluth 8, Mankato 7

Waterloo 6, Saint Cloud 2

Tags: wisconsin sports, sports, proam