The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast w/Ric Hanson.

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

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jason Hammel struck out 10, Drew Butera and Salvador Perez homered, and the Kansas City Royals held on to beat the Texas Rangers 5-3. Hammel pitched 5 1/3 shutout innings. He gave up four hits, including three doubles, and two walks.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Harrison Bader’s pinch-hit bloop single off Pittsburgh closer Felipe Vazquez keyed a late rally and helped the St. Louis Cardinals surge past the slumping Pirates for a 6-4 victory. The Cardinals won for just the fourth time in 19 games when trailing after seven innings by pouncing on Pittsburgh’s bullpen.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Ben Mezzenga singled in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning and threw out what would have been the tying run at home in the eighth, and top-seeded Minnesota beat Purdue 6-4 in the Big Ten Tournament championship game. The regular-season champion Gophers won their first tournament title since 2010 and 10th under 37th-year coach John Anderson. The loss was Purdue’s first in eight games.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Florida State will host a regional in the NCAA baseball tournament for the 35th time while Stetson was named a first-time host. The NCAA announced the 16 regional sites, and the rest of the 64-team field will be unveiled Monday. Each regional will be made up of four teams playing in a double-elimination format. All are scheduled from Friday through Monday. Regional winners advance to best-of-three super regionals and those eight winners go on to the College World Series in Omaha.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Harrison Bader’s pinch-hit bloop single off Pittsburgh closer Felipe Vazquez keyed a late rally and helped the St. Louis Cardinals surge past the slumping Pirates 6-4 on Sunday.
The Cardinals won for just the fourth time in 19 games when trailing after seven innings by pouncing on Pittsburgh’s bullpen. St. Louis loaded the bases off Michael Feliz (0-2) and the Pirates brought in Vazquez with one out in the eighth. Bader fought off a 99 mph fastball from Vazquez and dumped it into shallow right field to tie the game. Vazquez walked Yairo Munoz on four pitches to hand St. Louis the lead and the Cardinals added another on a fielder’s choice RBI by Carson Kelly. Vazquez has blown three straight save opportunities for the Pirates, who have dropped seven of nine.Sam Tuivailala (1-0) picked up the win with a scoreless seventh. Bud Norris worked a perfect ninth for his 11th save. Matt Carpenter went 2 for 4 for St. Louis and is hitting .422 (19 of 45) since May 16. Jedd Gyorko got the Cardinals within one with a pinch-hit, two-run single off Edgar Santana in the seventh.
UP NEXT
Cardinals: Head to Milwaukee to take on the first-place Brewers on Monday. Luke Weaver (3-4, 4.31 ERA) starts in the opener. Pre-game 12:15, 1st pitch 1:10 on KJAN.
Pirates: Host the Chicago Cubs for three games starting Monday. Chad Kuhl (4-2, 4.20 ERA) starts the opener. Kuhl is 1-4 with an 8.23 ERA in seven career starts against the Cubs.

Baseball:

Bishop Heelan Catholic, Sioux City 8, LeMars 1
Boone 4, Lewis Central 2
Johnston 10, Lewis Central 0 (6 innings)
Van Meter 8, Coon Rapids-Bayard 1

St. Albert 14 Lawton-Bronson 4

St. Albert 13 Logan-Magnolia 3

Softball:

Atlantic 13 Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton 0

Mount Ayr 14 Treynor 3

Red Oak Tournament –

Red Oak defeated Riverside in the semi-finals, 8-3 & the won the Championship over Shenandoah, 10-5.

Winterset Tournament –

Harlan 18 Nodaway Valley 0

Interstate 35, Truro 16 Chariton 3

Interstate 35, Truro 5 Harlan 2

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

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Shin-Soo Choo became the top major league home run hitter born in Asia, connecting for a leadoff drive in the 10th inning that lifted the Texas Rangers over the Kansas City Royals 4-3. Choo’s 176th career homer moved him past Hideki Matsui for the most by an Asian player.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jack Flaherty allowed four hits over six innings, Matt Carpenter hit his fifth home run of the season and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-1. Flaherty (2-1) followed up a dominant performance against Philadelphia by keeping the Pirates in check. Flaherty gave up Starling Marte’s long home run in the first but settled down quickly. Jose Martinez added three hits for the Cardinals, who beat the Pirates for the first time in five tries this season.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals have placed struggling reliever Greg Holland on the disabled list with a right hip impingement. The Cardinals made the move after Holland’s ERA ballooned to 9.45 following a bumpy inning of work in an 8-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Holland, a three-time All-Star, has allowed two runs in each of his last four appearances. The Cardinals also activated pitcher Tyler Lyons and catcher Carson Kelly off the DL.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nick Dalesandro had a pair of hits and scored three runs and Purdue rallied from three runs down to roll past Illinois 11-5 and advance to the Big Ten Tournament championship game. Harry Shipley also had two hits and three runs for the Boilermakers. They will face top-seeded Minnesota for the title.

The 7:17-a.m. Sportscast w/Ric Hanson.

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Boys Substate Final Soccer games are set to be played today. Most games are set for a Noon start.

CLASS 1A:
Des Moines Christian vs. AHSTW, Avoca @ Des Moines Christian
Gilbert vs. Kuemper Catholic, Carroll @ Gilbert
St. Albert, Council Bluffs vs. Treynor @ Treynor

CLASS 2A:
ADM, Adel vs. Dallas Center-Grimes @ ADM, Adel
Storm Lake vs. Denison-Schleswig @ Buena Vista University
Harlan vs. Perry @ Harlan

CLASS 3A:
Valley, West Des Moines vs. Lewis Central @ Valley, West Des Moines

Class 3A Region 1

Des Moines Roosevelt @ CB Abraham Lincoln 10:00am

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

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Joe Musgrove came off the disabled list to win his Pirates debut with seven scoreless innings on the mound while also getting his first career hit and scoring the winning run as Pittsburgh beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-1. The right-hander singled to lead off the sixth inning, when the Pirates scored three times off John Gant to break a scoreless tie.

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Ronald Guzman homered in his fourth straight start and drove in three runs, leading the Texas Rangers over the Kansas City Royals 8-4. The rookie first baseman finished 2 for 4, including his sixth home run of the season. Nomar Mazara also had a homer and three RBIs for Texas. Mike Minor gave up home runs to Mike Moustakas and Jorge Soler but earned the victory that ended Kansas City’s season-best three-game winning streak. Royals lefty Eric Skoglund (1-5) allowed three home runs.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Jack Yalowitz scored from second base on Ben Troike’s deep drive to center field in the bottom of the ninth inning and Illinois posted a 5-4 walk-off win over Indiana in a Big Ten Tournament elimination game. Yalowitz singled leading off against Matt Lloyd, moved over on a sacrifice and came home when Troike’s long fly glanced off center fielder Logan Kaletha’s glove. It was the fifth one-run game in the tournament and the fourth won in walk-off fashion.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Tyler Cowles knocked in a pair of runs and Ohio State held off Michigan 5-3, eliminating the Wolverines from the Big Ten Tournament. The Buckeyes advanced to face top-seeded Minnesota.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Ohio football coach Frank Solich will return to Nebraska in January to receive the Tom Osborne Legacy Award from his former boss. The Football Writers Association of America announced Solich would be honored during the Outland Trophy banquet in Omaha. Solich was fired as Nebraska coach in 2003 after going 58-19 in six years.

The Atlantic boys tennis doubles team of Grant Podhajsky and Cooper McDermott have advanced to day two of the Class 1A State Tournament. They started off with a win 6-1, 7-5 over the duo of Ben Wallace and RJ Roberts of Knoxville. In their second round match they fell to Mason Hulse and Corbin Wafful of Boone 6-4, 6-2. They then defeated Ballard’s team of Caleb Hamerlinck and Max Olson 6-2, 6-3 in consolation 2nd round play. They will next play in the consolation semifinals against Jaden Heiden and Sean Moran of Denison-Schleswig on Saturday morning at 9:30am.

Glenwood’s Joel Ibanez and Adam Konfrst will play a duo from Dubuque Wahlert in the other consolation semifinal.

In singles play Atlantic’s Nile Petersen lost his first round match to Jordan Rozeboom of Pella 6-3, 6-4. Petersen then went on to win his consolation bracket match 6-2, 6-1 over Cauy Teske of South Hardin. Petersen was then knocked out in a second round consolation battle with Daniel Zhu of Maharishi, Fairfield 4-6, 6-4, 1 (9).