ST. LOUIS (AP) — Just like his teammates, Jameson Taillon had been struggling after a strong start to the season. The promising young Pirates right-hander put it all back together Friday night. Taillon pitched three-hit ball over eight innings and Pittsburgh beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-0 on Friday night for its second win in its past seven games. Pittsburgh had lost three straight to St. Louis during a 3-10 stretch, mostly against NL Central opponents.

Taillon (3-4) hadn’t won since April 8, when he one-hit the Cincinnati Reds in a 5-0 win. He was nearly as good this time against St. Louis, striking out six and walking one to slim his ERA to 3.97. St. Louis has dropped three of five. Miles Mikolas (6-1) gave up two runs — one earned — in six innings. He allowed six hits, struck out two and walked one. This was his first loss since returning to the U.S. following a stint in the Japanese professional league.

The Cardinals’ Yadier Molina is scheduled to make rehab starts for Double-A Springfield today (Saturday) and Sunday. He expects to return to the Cardinals for their Tuesday game with Milwaukee. Molina suffered a pelvic injury with a traumatic hematoma on May 5 that required emergency surgery. Pirates RHP Chad Kuhl will face Cardinals RHP Luke Weaver today in the third game of a four-game set. Kuhl is looking for his first win since May 6. He lost his last outing, which followed three consecutive no decisions. Weaver has dropped three straight decisions and four of his past five.

Listen for the pre-game show at 12:20-p.m. here on KJAN, with the first pitch at 1:15.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa men’s basketball team will host Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Nov. 27 on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena as part of the 2018 ACC/Big Ten Challenge, it was announced Friday by the league office.

ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU will combine to televise all 14 games of the event and all games will be available to stream via the ESPN app.  Tip times and network designations will be announced at a later date.

The Hawkeyes have won their last two Challenge games in Iowa City, topping Notre Dame (98-93) in 2013 and outlasting Florida State (78-75) in overtime in 2015.

This will be Iowa’s eighth all-time meeting against Pitt and the first as part of the Challenge. The Hawkeyes are 2-5 against the Panthers, but Iowa has won the last two matchups, winning 73-66 at Pittsburgh in 1950 and 103-70 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1976.

This will mark Iowa’s 18th appearance in the 20-year history of the Challenge.

Iowa finished the 2017-18 season with a 14-19 overall record. The Hawkeyes return their top nine scorers and 11 letterwinners, including honorable-mention All-Big Ten selections Tyler Cook and Jordan Bohannon.

Pitt went 8-24 last season and was winless in ACC play (0-18) in 2017-18.  Jeff Capel is in his first season as the Panthers’ head coach after spending the past seven seasons at Duke.  He was Mike Krzyzewski’s associate head coach the past four seasons.

The ACC won last year’s Challenge by the count of 11-3 to retain possession of the Commissioner’s Cup. The Big Ten has won five of the last nine Challenges (2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2015). The ACC and Big Ten split the 2012 and 2013 Challenges, with each conference notching six victories.

Girls Regional Soccer play continues tonight. Here is a look at area match-ups.

Class 1A Regional Semifinals

Region 1
MOC-Floyd Valley at Western Christian 5:00pm
St. Albert vs. Bishop Heelan 6:00pm

Region 2
Panorama at Gilbert 6:00pm
Tri-Center at Treynor 6:00pm

Region 3
Creston at Nevada 6:00pm
Harlan at Des Moines Christian 6:00pm

Boys State Soccer Semifinals will be played today at the Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines.

Class 1A

#1 Iowa City Regina vs. #4 Gilbert 12:00pm (Field #9)
#2 Williamsburg vs. #3 Des Moines Christian 12:05pm (Field #6)

Class 2A

#1 Pella vs. #5 Cedar Rapids Xavier 2:30pm (Field #9)
#2 Storm Lake vs. #3 Marion 2:35pm (Field #6)

Class 3A

#8 Waukee vs. #5 Iowa City West 5:00pm (Field #9)
#7 Ankeny vs. #3 Bettendorf-Morningstar-Rivermont 5:05pm (Field #6)

Hawkeye Ten Conference

Denison-Schleswig 5, Clarinda 0
Harlan 2, Creston 1 (Game 1)
Harlan 10, Creston 0 (Game 2)
Kuemper Catholic 3, Glenwood 2 (Game 1)
Kuemper Catholic 7, Glenwood 4 (Game 2)
Lewis Central 14, Red Oak 1
St. Albert 4, Shenandoah 3

Rolling Valley Conference

Boyer Valley 7, Whiting 5
Pocahontas Area 15, Coon Rapids-Bayard 4

Western Iowa Conference

AHSTW 10, Griswold 0
Audubon 3, Missouri Valley 2
Logan-Magnolia 9, IKM-Manning 2
Treynor 9, Cherokee 3
Tri-Center 4, Underwood 3

Corner Conference

Fremont-Mills 26, Clarinda Academy 10
Stanton 3, CAM 1

Pride of Iowa Conference

Lenox 11, Southwest Valley 3
Mount Ayr 12, Bedford 7
Nodaway Valley 12, East Union 3

Hawkeye Ten Conference

Denison-Schleswig 17, Clarinda 1 (Game 1)
Denison-Schleswig 9, Clarinda 2 (Game 2)
Glenwood 13, Kuemper Catholic 2 (Game 1)
Glenwood 9, Kuemper Catholic 0 (Game 2)
Harlan 14, Creston 2 (Game 1)
Harlan 7, Creston 4 (Game 2)
Lewis Central 10, Red Oak 0 (5 inn.) (Game 1)
Lewis Central 13, Red Oak 5 (Game 2)
Shenandoah 15, St. Albert 4 (Game 1)
Shenandoah 12, St. Albert 4 (Game 2)

Rolling Valley Conference

Boyer Valley 17, Fremont-Mills 6
CAM 9, Stanton 6
Glidden-Ralston 18, Maple Valley-Anthon Oto 6

Western Iowa Conference

Griswold 13, AHSTW 3
IKM-Manning 7, Logan-Magnolia 5
Missouri Valley 10, Audubon 9
Treynor 8, Riverside 3
Underwood 22, Tri-Center 1

Pride of Iowa Conference

East Union 8, Nodaway Valley 7
Lenox 10, Southwest Valley 4
Mount Ayr 13, Bedford 2

Other Scores

Grand View Christian 10, Orient-Macksburg 0
Saydel 12, Carroll 2

The Boys State Soccer Tournaments kicked off on Thursday at Cownie Soccer Park in Des Moines and will continue through Saturday. Quarterfinals are being played Thursday, Semifinals on Friday, and Finals and Consolation Finals on Saturday.

Class 1A

#1 Iowa City Regina 3, #8 Treynor 0
#4 Gilbert 1, #5 Davenport Assumption 0 (2 OT)
#2 Williamsburg 2, #7 Nevada 1
#3 Des Moines Christian 4, #6 Iowa Mennonite 0

Class 2A

#1 Pella 2, #8 Perry 1
#5 Cedar Rapids-Xavier 3, #4 Dallas Center-Grimes 0
#2 Storm Lake 6, #7 Hudson 0
#3 Marion 5, #6 Newton 4

Class 3A

#8 Waukee 2, #1 WDM Valley 1 (OT)
#5 Iowa City, West 2, #4 Ankeny Centennial 1 (OT)
#7 Ankeny 3, #2 Cedar Rapids Prairie 0
#3 Bettendorf-Morningstar-Rivermont 1, #6 Iowa City, City High 0

The Girls State Singles and Doubles Tennis Tournaments finished on Thursday. Class 1A played at Byrnes Park in Waterloo and Class 2A competed at the Hawkeye Tennis Center in Iowa City. Here is a look at results from area athletes.

Class 1A

Singles-Consolation Semifinals
Nichole Gilbert, Shenandoah def. Anna Freiburger, Wahlert Catholic 6-1, 7-6

Singles- Consolation Final (5th Place Match)
Nichole Gilbert, Shenandoah def. Kate Rietz, Ballard 6-4, 6-1

Doubles-Semifinals
Sophie Walker/Sydney Streicher, Red Oak def. Madi Overmann/Katie Wichman, Waverly-Shell Rock 6-2, 2-6, 6-3

Doubles-Championship
Olivia Fain/Taylor Hogan, Columbus Catholic def. Sophie Walker/Sydney Streicher, Red Oak 6-0, 6-1

Champions

1A Singles: Anatta Charoenkul, Fairfield
1A Doubles: Olivia Fain/Taylor Hogan, Columbus Catholic
2A Singles: Cari Naanep, Johnston
2A Doubles: Emma Koch/Audrey Koch, Iowa City West

State Girls Team Tennis will be played on Saturday. Glenwood will be competing in Class 1A at Byrnes Park in Waterloo.

The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast w/Jim Field. (Abbreviated report due to a technical issue)

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Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Yairo Munoz capped St. Louis’ five-run ninth inning with a three-run homer, rallying the Cardinals to a 10-8 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Francisco Cervelli hit a tiebreaking three-run homer in the eighth to give Pittsburgh an 8-5 lead. But the Pirates couldn’t hold on and lost in St. Louis for the fifth straight time and 12th in the last 14.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Alex Reyes’ return to the St. Louis Cardinals after a 20-month absence lasted just four innings. The 23-year-old right-hander was put on the 10-day disabled list because of a strained latissimus dorsi muscle in his right side. Coming back from Tommy John surgery, Reyes was hurt on Wednesday when he allowed three hits over four scoreless innings at Milwaukee in his first big league appearance since Sept. 29, 2016.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — No one was less surprised that Tyler Cook decided to come back to Iowa than coach Fran McCaffery. The biggest question now for the Hawkeyes is whether Cook’s return will be enough to get them back on track after a disappointing season. Cook, who will be a junior next winter, is withdrawing from the NBA Draft. He led the team last season with 15.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.