(Radio Iowa/Learfield Sports) — Carroll native Nick Nurse has led the Toronto Raptors to the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors. The Raptors wrapped up the Eastern Conference championship with a game six victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night.

Nurse was elevated to head coach last summer and took on a team known more for coming up short in the playoffs.

Nurse says the Raptors have played their best in the post season.

The Raptors won the series after losing the first two games on the road.

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

BOSTON (AP) — T.J. Oshie and plenty of other former members of the Blues organization are rooting for their old team to win the Cup for the first time in franchise history. That includes a couple of executives who helped build the team and are beaming with pride at St. Louis living up to the potential that it appeared to have over this run of eight playoff appearances in 11 seasons.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Whit Merrifield got a lucky hop on an RBI single in the 10th inning, and the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Yankees 8-7 despite blowing a six-run lead. Merrifield hit a sharp, two-out grounder toward third baseman Gio Urshela with speedster Billy Hamilton at second. The ball skipped over the head of Urshela, giving Hamilton time to race home. Hamilton had walked against Josh Holder and stolen second to set up the play.

BOSTON (AP) — The biggest star at Stanley Cup Final media day doesn’t play for the Boston Bruins or St. Louis Blues. He’s 18-month old “Today” show dog Sunny who roamed the interview room the day before the Cup Final begins, interacting with players in collaboration with NBC Sports and the Guide Dog Foundation. It also had a real-life benefit of helping him practice skills he’ll need as a service dog.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Brian McCann drew a bases-loaded walk in the 10th inning and the Atlanta Braves rallied for a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Atlanta, which scored three runs in the ninth to tie it, has won 12 of 16 and captured its fifth successive series by winning two of three from St. Louis.

BOSTON (AP) — Bruins winger Brad Marchand says his left hand is good heading into Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. Marchand sat out practice Sunday after being given a maintenance day by coach Bruce Cassidy. Marchand injured his hand during an intrasquad scrimmage last week. He is the Bruins’ leading scorer in the playoffs with 18 points.

UNDATED (AP) — The television ratings for this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs have been steady despite many top markets not being in the mix. Game 1 of the final between the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins is Monday night. So far, television ratings for all games across NBC’s Sports Group are slightly down from last year but up 4% from 2017. An average of 1.174 million viewers have tuned in per game, which is the fifth most since 1994.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Griffan Smith and Andrew Magno combined to hold down Nebraska’s offense and Ohio State mustered just enough of its own to beat the Cornhuskers 3-1 in the Big Ten Tournament championship game. The seventh-seeded Buckeyes claimed the Big Ten’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid with their 11th win in 13 games. Two crucial video reviews went in Ohio State’s favor and swung the game.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Six Southeastern Conference schools are among the 16 regional hosts for the NCAA baseball tournament, with LSU playing at home in the first round for the 26th time. SEC schools hosting regionals in addition to LSU are Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi State, Mississippi and Vanderbilt. The ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 have three teams apiece hosting regionals. West Virginia will host for the first time.

St. Albert’s Reed Miller and Denison’s doubles team of Colin Reis and Sean Moran placed at Boys State Tennis that finished up on Saturday.

Miller won both of his matches on Saturday in the consolation bracket and took 5th place. Miller topped Jordan Roozeboom of Pella 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (9) to move into the 5th place match. In the 5th place match he won 6-3, 7-5 over Rhett Peters of Union.

Denison-Schleswig’s Colin Reis and Sean Moran placed 6th in doubles play. The duo beat Winterboer/Wohlgemuth of Ballard in the consolation semifinals 7-6 (2), 7-6. They then lost the 5th place match to Cedar Rapids Xavier’s Horstmann/Courter 6-7 (2), 6-2, 1-0 (6).

Class 1A

Substate 8
Greene County 5, AHSTW 2

Class 2A

Substate 8
Lewis Central 4, Harlan 0

Substate 7
Dallas Center-Grimes 3, ADM 1

Baseball

Johnston 17, Lewis Central 2 (4 innings)
Lewis Central 8, Boone 2
Logan-Magnolia 6, Lawton-Bronson 3
Logan-Magnolia 14, Lawton-Bronson 3
Treynor 12, Shenandoah 2
Treynor 12, Shenandoah 4

Softball

ADM 11, Van Meter 1
Boone 12, Glidden-Ralston 0
Martensdale-St Marys 13, Glidden-Ralston 1
Southeast Valley 6, Glidden-Ralston 2
Boone 13, Martensdale-St Marys 3
Boone 5, Southeast Valley 4
Carroll 7, Greene County 3
Carroll 8, Webster City 3
Chariton 2, Coon Rapids-Bayard 1
Fort Dodge 12, Lewis Central 0
Hinton 10, Logan-Magnolia 4
Harlan 5, Van Meter 3
Interstate 35 5, Harlan 3
MVAOCOU 10, Hinton 5
Ogden 3, Carroll 0
Twin Cedars 10, West Central Valley 0

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

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Pinch hitter Jedd Gyorko connected for a three-run homer during St. Louis’ four-run eighth inning, helping the Cardinals top the Atlanta Braves 6-3. Paul Goldschmidt and Matt Carpenter each had three hits as St. Louis improved to 7-15 in May. The Cardinals (26-25) were in danger of falling below the .500 mark for the first time since April 7.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Austin Romine and Cameron Maybin each drove in two in New York’s five-run second inning, and the Yankees held on to beat the Kansas City Royals 6-5, completing a doubleheader sweep for their seventh straight win. Romine finished with three hits and Maybin also had an RBI single in the third as won both games after severe thunderstorms postponed Friday night’s contest.

UNDATED (AP) — Bruce Cassidy and Craig Berube will meet in the Stanley Cup Final after taking different approaches to getting a second chance to be an NHL head coach. Cassidy evolved in every way to respond from a disastrous tenure in Washington to get the Bruins back to the final. As for Berube, he didn’t change a thing with the Blues after being fired by the Flyers. One of them will become the sixth coach in 12 years to lift the Cup in his second NHL head-coaching job.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A 49-year wait is over for St. Louis Blues fans. The team is in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1970. The Blues are facing the same opponent, the Boston Bruins, and Game 1 is Monday night. The unexpected success of a team that was last in the NHL is January has fans emotional.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Spencer Schwellenbach had three hits and drove in three runs, and Robbie Palkert threw 5 1-3 innings of strong relief as Nebraska advanced to the Big Ten Tournament championship game with a 7-3 win over Michigan on Saturday night. The fifth-seeded Cornhuskers bounced back from an 18-8 loss to the second-seeded Wolverines earlier in the day to reach the title game Sunday for the first time since 2014.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A little lineup tweak is working out quite well for Dansby Swanson and the Atlanta Braves.

Swanson homered twice and Freddie Freeman also connected, helping Mike Foltynewicz and Atlanta beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-2 on Friday night.

The Braves improved to 11-3 since manager Brian Snitker put Swanson in the No. 2 slot ahead of Freeman on May 10.

“I think we help each other a lot,” Swanson said. “I would like to think that I help him, especially if I’m on base, that he would be able to get pitched differently. But having him hit behind me is fun.”

Swanson drove Miles Mikolas’ first pitch of the sixth inning over the wall in left, giving Atlanta a 2-1 lead. Freeman then hit his 13th homer, giving Atlanta its third set of back-to-back homers this season.

“Completely different than last year,” Freeman said about Swanson, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 amateur draft. “He’s staying on pitches a lot longer, seeing balls a lot longer, and putting the barrel on the ball. He’s been huge for us.”

Foltynewicz (1-3) allowed an unearned run in six innings in his first win since Sept. 28. The right-hander struck out seven and walked none.

Mikolas (4-5) matched his career high with nine strikeouts in seven innings. He was charged with three runs and seven hits while exceeding his number of losses from all of last season.

Atlanta grabbed the lead when Brian McCann scored on Ronald Acuña Jr.’s double play in the third. St. Louis tied it in the bottom half.

Kolten Wong reached second on rookie Austin Riley’s error. Harrison Bader then tripled to center off Acuña’s glove, but he was tagged out after being caught in a rundown between third and home when Foltynewicz cut off the throw to the plate.

UP NEXT

Braves RHP Mike Soroka (5-1, 1.01 ERA) faces Cardinals RHP Dakota Hudson (3-3, 4.30 ERA) on Saturday night. Soroka allowed three hits in seven scoreless innings in his only previous outing versus St. Louis on May 15.

Baseball

Denison-Schleswig 9, OA-BCIG 4
East Mills 19, Griswold 9
Fremont-Mills 6, Sidney 4
Harlan 9, Bishop Heelan 6
Kuemper Catholic, Carroll 10, Red Oak 0 (Game 1)
Kuemper Catholic, Carroll 13, Red Oak 1 (Game 2)
MVAOCOU 7, Woodbury Central, Moville 5
Missouri Valley 16, IKM-Manning 2 (5 innings)
Nodaway Valley 15, Creston 3
Sergeant Bluff-Luton 3, St. Albert 2 (8 innings)
Southwest Valley 14, Lenox 3
Treynor 8, AHSTW 0
Tri-Center 11, Riverside 0 (5 innings)
Underwood 5, Audubon 0
Wayne 6, East Union 0
Woodbine 14, Glidden-Ralston 2

Softball

Denison-Schleswig 8, Shenandoah 2 (Game 1)
Denison-Schleswig 3, Shenandoah 2 (Game 2)
Fremont-Mills 11, Sidney 6
Griswold 8, East Mills 5
Kuemper Catholic 5, Carroll 3
Lenox 3, Southwest Valley 2
Missouri Valley 9, IKM-Manning 3
Riverside 11, Tri-Center 1
Sioux City North 19, Lewis Central 2
Sioux City East 10, Lewis Central 0 (5 innings)
Treynor 10, AHSTW 2
Twin Cedars 8, Orient-Macksburg 0
Underwood 5, Audubon 0
Wayne 10, East Union 0
West Monona 9, Ridge View 0
Westwood 16, River Valley 3
Woodbury Central 12, MVAOCOU 6

The Boys State Tourney started on Friday for both Classes 1A and 2A. Action began indoors due to wet weather then moved back outside once weather was favorable. Class 1A action was being contested at Byrnes Park Tennis Courts in Waterloo and Atlantic had two players in singles action. Denison-Schleswig and Clarinda had doubles teams in competition.

Atlantic’s Nile Petersen lost his opening match to Jack Edwards of Pella 6-0, 6-4. He then went into the consolation bracket and defeated Jeff Miller of St. Albert 6-1, 6-4. Then in the Consolation Quarterfinals Petersen lost to Reed Miller of St. Albert 6-0, 6-1. That ends Petersen’s play at State. Miller lost to Evan Moon of North Polk in the Quarterfinals 6-3,6-4 to fall to the Consolation bracket. Miller will face Jordan Roozeboom of Pella in the Consolation Semifinals on Saturday and then in the 5th or 7th place match.

Grant Sturm of Atlantic also saw his tournament end on day one. Sturm fell to Reed Miller of St. Albert 6-1, 6-0 in his opening match. Then Sturm went to the Consolation bracket and lost to Sam Avery of Ft. Madison 6-3, 6-3.

Jeff Miller of St. Albert lost his opening match to Zach Wingert of LeMars 7-6(4), 6-4 before falling to Petersen in the Consolation bracket.

In Class 1A Doubles play Brady Williams and Alex Best of Clarinda won their opening round match over Mac Adams and Aaron Blum of Clear Lake 1-6, 7-6(3), 7-5. They then fell to Wes Johnson and Matthew Schmidt of Cedar Rapids Xavier 6-0, 6-2. They then went to the Consolation bracket and lost to Chase Winterboer and Colton Stout of Ballard 6-3, 7-5. That knocks the duo out of play.

Also in doubles action Sean Moran and Collin Reis of Denison-Schleswig won their opening match over Caleb Hammerlinck and Max Olsan of Ballard 6-2, 7-5. They then fell to Lewis Jolly and AJ Wilkins of Grinnell 6-4, 6-4. In the Consolation Quarterfinals the Denison duo defeated Jason and Vasn Thurman of Fort Madison 7-6 (2), 1-6, 1-0(4) to make it to day two in the Consolation Semifinals. They will play Chase Winterboer and Colton Stout of Ballard at 9:30am Saturday and then in either the 5th or 7th place match.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Eli Wilson had two hits and drove in two runs, helping Minnesota eliminate Iowa in the Big Ten tournament with a 3-0 victory on Friday night.

Wilson had an RBI single in the third inning and an RBI double in the ninth inning for the fourth-seeded Gophers (28-26), who advanced to meet seventh-seeded Ohio State in the semifinals on Saturday. If they win the first matchup with the Buckeyes, they must beat them again to make it to the championship game on Sunday.

Gophers starter Joshua Culliver scattered four hits without a walk over 4 1/3 innings, and Ryan Duffy added 3 2/3 scoreless innings of relief.

Jordan Kozicky added an RBI single in the ninth and Brett Schulze got the save, striking out Chris Whelan looking to end the game with runners at second and third at 12:49 local time to cap a long day at TD Ameritrade Park. Iowa lost 11-1 to Nebraska in the afternoon, a game postponed by a rainstorm the night before.

Ben Norman went 3 for 4 for the eighth-seeded Hawkeyes (31-24).