Morning State Sports Briefs: Two Brewers nominated for Golden Glove awards

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MILWAUKEE - Two Milwaukee Brewers are finalists for the National League Gold Glove awards to be announced tonight. Left-fielder Ryan Braun and third baseman Aramis Ramirez have been nominated for the awards, which go to the best fielder at each position in each league.

The Brewers have not had a Gold Glove winner since 1982, when Robin Yount took the American League honors at shortstop. The Brewers have nine Gold Glove winners in their 43-year history. Braun is a finalist for the second straight year. He was beat out by Gerardo Parra of Arizona a year ago. This season, Braun had a fielding percentage of .979, seventh-best among National League left-fielders. Ramirez is the surprise nominee. He had a reputation as a sloppy fielder when he came to Milwaukee a year ago. But Ramirez led the National League in 2012 with a .977 fielding percentage – and he reduced his error total in half from 14 to seven.

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The Brewers have three eligible free agents – and they’ve all declared their intentions to shop around for new teams. Starter Shaun Marcum, reliever Francisco Rodriguez, and shortstop Alex Gonzalez were among 137 Major League players who filed yesterday, when the declaration period opened. They can start negotiating with new teams at 11:01 on Friday night. Marcum and Rodriguez were not expected to return to Milwaukee next season. Gonzalez is reportedly looking for a place where he can start, but the Brewers have said they plan to go with newcomer Jean Segura at short next season. Thirteen former Brewers also filed for free agency yesterday. They are Lyle Overbay and Ben Sheets of Atlanta, Bill Hall and Randy Wolf of Baltimore, Takashi Saito of Arizona, Zack Greinke of the Angels, Scott Podsednik from Boston, Jamey Wright of the LA Dodgers, Carlos Lee of Miami, Mike Adams of Texas, Carlos Villanueva of Toronto, and Guillermo Mota from the World Series champion San Francisco Giants. Also filing for free agency was Menasha native Eric Hinske of Atlanta.

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The NBA regular season begins tonight with a pair of games, but the Milwaukee Bucks won’t start their campaign until Friday night at Boston. In the meantime, Bucks’ coach Scott Skiles is still trying to set his player rotation – something he didn’t complete during the recent exhibition season in which the Bucks went 3-and-5. The Bucks had a full-scale scrimmage yesterday, and second-round rookie Doron Lamb was among the standouts. Skiles says Lamb has played well since returning from a torn elbow ligament that kept him out for most of training camp. The guard from Kentucky scored 12 points in 23 minutes last Friday night against Minnesota – and he had 12 points in 20 minutes the day before at Charlotte. Skiles says there’s a good chance that Lamb will be part of the Milwaukee rotation against the Celtics if he continues his strong performance at practice this week. Meanwhile, Bucks’ swingman Mike Dunleavy missed practice yesterday with a sprained foot. But Skiles expects him to play in Friday night’s opener.

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Former Marquette University forward Lazar Hayward is on his third NBA team in his third season in the league. The 26-year-old Hayward was part of a blockbuster trade over the weekend that sent him from Oklahoma City to the Houston Rockets. All told, the Thunder sent James Harden, Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook, and Hayward to Houston for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two first-round draft picks, and a second-rounder. The 6-6 Hayward played in 26 games for Oklahoma City last season, averaging almost one-and-a-half points and one rebound in around five-and-a-half minutes per game. In five playoff games, Hayward averaged just under one point and one rebound in about four minutes a night. He played his rookie season in Minnesota, averaging close to four points and one-point-seven rebounds in 10 minutes a game.

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The University of Wisconsin men’s golf team is in third place, and Marquette is 11th going into today’s third-and-final round of the Wendy’s Kiawah Classic in South Carolina. The Badgers improved their game by five strokes yesterday with a 291. They’re now at 587 for 36 holes, 12 strokes behind first-place South Carolina. The Golden Eagles are at 606, after dropping three places yesterday in the 26-team field. Thomas Welk is the Badgers’ top player so far. He’s tied for ninth place at 144. Zach Gauger is Marquette’s top individual. He’s tied for 20th at 147.

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Helen Steinhauser of UW-Milwaukee has been named the Horizon League women’s soccer Player-of-the-Year. The senior midfielder was the only player to get votes for both the offensive-and-defensive honors. Steinhauser has scored seven points. She also made the all-conference first team, along with Milwaukee teammates Kelly Lewers and Kelsey Holbert. Krissy Dorre and Amy Kauffung of UWM made the all-league second team, along with Megan Braatz of Green Bay. Sydney Born of Green Bay made the all-Horizon Newcomer team. Kaitlyn Quarrell of Detroit was named the offensive player-of-the-year, and Lauren Patterson of Wright State received the honors on defense. Nora Abolins of Detroit is the Coach-of-the-Year, after her team tied with Milwaukee for the regular season championship. The Horizon women’s soccer tournament begins today. Milwaukee has the top seed, with a bye until Friday’s semi-finals.

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Danielle Carlson of Marquette has been named the Big East Conference volleyball player-of-the-week. The senior middle hitter led the Golden Eagles to a pair of victories against Georgetown and Villanova. Carlson hit .519 for the week with an average of four-point-one-four kills and almost one-and-a-half blocks per set.

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Elaine Gerry of Edgewood College was named today as the women’s soccer Offensive Player-of-the-Year in the Northern Athletics Conference. Gerry, a senior forward, leads the league with 25 goals and 58 points, and she ranks in the Top-Five in Division III in both categories. Also, Green Bay native Jenee Lange of Aurora is the NAC’s Defensive Player-of-the-Year. Lange, a junior defenseman, was a leader for an Aurora team which had the league’s lowest goals-against-average with point-63 in conference games. Also, Brittany Klumpp of Concordia-Mequon was named the Freshman-of-the-Year. And Aurora’s Troy Edwards is the Coach-of-the-Year. Gerry, Lange, and Klumpp also made the all-NAC first team. Also making the squad were Ashley Alonzo and Kristina Santaga of Edgewood – Emma Lumpe and Paula Bohl of Milwaukee Engineering – Ashley Apazeller and Laurel Straehler of Concordia-Mequon – and Laura Maly of Marian. Third-seeded Concordia-Mequon plays at Number-Two Edgewood tomorrow night in the semi-finals of the NAC women’s soccer tourney. Top-seeded Aurora hosts No. 5 seed Milwaukee School of Engineering.

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The semi-finals are set for the Northern Athletics Conference men’s soccer tournament. Third-seeded Concordia-Mequon will play at No. 2 Aurora. And defending champion and top-seeded Dominican will host fourth-seeded Milwaukee School of Engineering. Both games will be played on Wednesday. The winners will advance to the title game on Saturday. Concordia and MSOE advanced after winning their first round games yesterday. Concordia blanked Wisconsin Lutheran 6-0, and Milwaukee School of Engineering topped Edgewood 3-1.

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The University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team is four spots away from the Top-20 in this week’s poll from U.S. College Hockey Online. The Badgers achieved a win and a tie at Minnesota-Duluth this past weekend. Friday night’s 2-0 shutout was Wisconsin’s first win of the year. The Badgers are now 1-2-1 overall. Minnesota-Duluth dropped three places to 17th. Boston College is still the men’s No. 1 team.

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The University of Wisconsin men’s soccer team is 1-3-1 in the Big Ten, after playing Northwestern to a scoreless draw at home Sunday. Chase Rau had five saves for the Badgers, who’ve won three of their last five matches. They’re now 6-7-4 overall.

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The Marquette University volleyball team improved to 10-1 in the Big East with a sweep at Villanova, three-sets-to-none. The Golden Eagles are now 20-and-4 overall. Danielle Carlson had 13 kills and a .524 hitting percentage. It’s the third straight year Marquette has reached 20 overall wins and 10 conference victories.

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Wisconsin lost by just two points to Northwestern in the fifth-and-final set of their match yesterday in Madison. The Wildcats went home with a 3-2 victory. Alexis Mitchell had 19 kills for the Badgers, who dropped to 4-8 in the Big Ten and 16-9 overall.

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