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

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Kyle Hendricks struck out eight over seven sharp innings, Ben Zobrist had four hits and the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-2 to salvage the finale of their weekend series. Hendricks retired his last 17 batters, settling into a nice little groove after Marcell Ozuna’s two-run homer in the first inning. The right-hander allowed four hits and walked none in just his second win in his last eight starts.

NEW YORK (AP) — J.A. Happ made the midseason impact the Yankees hoped for, pitching one-run ball over six innings to win his New York debut 6-3 over the Kansas City Royals. New York acquired the 35-year-old left-hander from Toronto for infielder Brandon Drury and outfield prospect Billy McKinney last week app took a shutout into the fifth before Salvador Perez’s home run.

NEW YORK (AP) — Brett Phillips’ bats never got to Yankee Stadium after getting lost on his flights from Colorado. His glove arrived, and that’s what mattered more in his Kansas City Royals debut. Phillips jumped and robbed Austin Romine of a possible three-run homer in the fourth inning of the Royals’ 6-3 loss to New York Yankees. And his eyes were closed at the ball landed in his glove at the top of the right-field wall.

Assumption defeated Harlan 11-1 in six innings Saturday night at Principal Park for the Class 3A state championship — its second straight championship and state-record 11th overall. Nick Gottilla banged out a state championship game record five hits for the Knights.

The Knights offense exploded for six runs in the bottom of the second. Gottilla blasted a ball of the wall which nearly left the yard and scored a run. Jeremy McIntosh also hit a sac fly and Jayce Levy added two runs on a single later in the frame.

Harlan scored one run in the fourth inning on a Connor Bruck sac fly which made the game 7-1.

Julien Broderson pitched a masterful game throwing six innings, only allowing one run and striking out eight batters.

Assumption finished 34-10. Harlan ended 33-4.

The Knights have an all-time state tournament record of 37-5.

(IAHSBB.com)

Harlan             0  0  0   1  0  0  –  1    3    2

Assumption    0  6  1   0  1  3  –  11  10  0

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

NEW YORK (AP) — The busy New York Yankees have traded relievers Chasen Shreve and Giovanny Gallegos to the St. Louis Cardinals for first baseman Luke Voit. The Yankees also got international signing bonus pool money from St. Louis. This was New York’s third trade in five days. They got reliever Zach Britton from Baltimore on Tuesday and acquired starter J.A. Happ from Toronto on Thursday. The Yankees, chasing AL East-leading Boston, needed to clear a roster spot to make room for Happ.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Marcell Ozuna hit a grand slam during a six-run first inning, Miles Mikolas pitched six strong innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 6-2 in front of a season-high crowd of 47,514 at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals improved to 9-6 this season against the NL Central-leading Cubs.

NEW YORK (AP) — Greg Bird homered to begin a two-run rally in the eighth inning as the New York Yankees survived a rough outing by newly acquired reliever Zach Britton and a tumble by CC Sabathia to beat the Kansas City Royals 5-4 for a split of their day-night doubleheader. The Royals won the opener 10-5, tagging All-Star ace Luis Severino for six runs in 4 1/3 innings. The doubleheader was caused by a rainout Friday.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Mike Moustakas has joined the Milwaukee Brewers and was batting third against the Giants in San Francisco. The two-time All-Star third baseman was traded overnight from Kansas City to Milwaukee.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — It’s been 44 years since sportscaster Bob Costas visited the Baseball Hall of Fame for the first time. Now, he’s got a permanent place in the shrine. Costas was honored Saturday in Cooperstown with the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters in a ceremony at Doubleday Field. Writer Sheldon Ocker, who covered the Cleveland Indians for 33 years for the Akron Beacon Journal, was honored with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for writers.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Milwaukee Brewers have acquired third baseman Mike Moustakas from the Kansas City Royals, making their second deal in as many days as the club makes a push for its first playoff appearance since 2011. The Brewers sent outfielder Brett Phillips and pitcher Jorge Lopez to the Royals, who are in last place in the AL Central.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs headed to training camp this year with their deepest and most talented running back stable in years. NFL rushing champion Kareem Hunt leads the way, but Spencer Ware is back from injury and some intriguing additions are on the roster. Among them are veterans Kerwynn Williams and Damien Williams and LSU standout Darrel Williams.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Christopher Bell moved back out front in overtime to win the NASCAR Xfinity series race at Iowa Speedway, becoming the first series regular with three straight victories since Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 1999. Coming off victories in Kentucky and New Hampshire

CLASS 4A
Urbandale 3, Cedar Rapids, Washington 0

CLASS 3A
Assumption, Davenport 11, Harlan 1 (6 innings)

CLASS 2A
Centerville 4, Regina, Iowa City 3

CLASS 1A
Newman Catholic, Mason City 9, Lisbon 5

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A change in lineup spots has done Marcell Ozuna good. Ozuna hit a grand slam during a six-run first inning, Miles Mikolas pitched six strong innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 6-2 Saturday in front of a season-high crowd of 47,514 at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals improved to 9-6 this season against the NL Central-leading Cubs. Chicago has lost four of six overall. Ozuna hit his second grand slam this season and the fifth of his career. Ozuna had three hits and is 5 for 8 since dropping from cleanup to the fifth spot in the Cardinals lineup.

Jose Martinez drew a bases-loaded walk from Jose Quintana (9-7) and Ozuna followed with his 11th home run. Yairo Munoz added an RBI double. The last time the Cardinals scored six runs in the opening inning was eight years to the day, on July 28, 2010, against the Mets.

Quintana needed 33 pitches to record his first out and 51 pitches to get through the first. The six runs were the most Quintana has allowed in the first inning this season — he had given up just four earned runs in the first inning through 19 starts. Mikolas (11-3) allowed six hits, including a two-run homer by Javier Baez, who connected for the second time in the series. Three St. Louis relievers each pitched a scoreless inning.

Jesse Chavez pitched three innings as Cubs relievers shut out the Cardinals for the final six innings. Cardinals right-hander Dakota Hudson made his first major league appearance in the seventh. Hudson, a first-round pick in 2016 out of Mississippi State, struck out Kyle Schwarber and Ian Happ while retiring all three batters he faced.

UP NEXT
The Cubs will start RHP Kyle Hendricks (6-8, 3.99 ERA) in the series finale against the Cardinals and RHP John Gant (3-3, 3.17 ERA) on Sunday night.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Christopher Bell moved back out front in overtime to win the NASCAR Xfinity series race Saturday at Iowa Speedway, becoming the first series regular with three straight victories since Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 1999.

Coming off victories in Kentucky and New Hampshire, Bell led 94 of 257 laps. He broke a tie with Cup driver Kyle Larson for the series season victory lead with four.
Bell fell back to fourth in the first attempt at overtime before a red flag halted the race. He retook control in Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 car, going low to beat Justin Allgaier —the winner of the June race at Iowa.

Allgaier finished second, followed by Kyle Benjamin and Ross Chastain.

The Nishna Valley YMCA Golf Tournament in Atlantic has been postponed due to rain. The event will be rescheduled.

The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Ric Hanson.

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NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Christopher Bell has been one of NASCAR’s rising young stars for the past few years. Over the past few weeks, Bell and the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 car have been so hot that he is close to joining some pretty select company.

Bell, a 23-year-old Oklahoma native and an Xfinity Series rookie, heads into tonight’s (Saturday night’s) race at Iowa Speedway seeking to become the first series regular with a three-race winning streak since Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 1999. Kyle Busch did it four times between 2008 and 2016 but he was also running full-time in the Cup Series — something Bell might be doing sooner rather than later if he keeps winning like he has.

“It would definitely be something special,” Bell said of the chance to win three straight. “To be able to get two in a row at Kentucky and Loudon, which are race tracks that are extremely different, is something that I’m proud of for our team … and we’ve got a good shot at it. We’ve been really fast here at Iowa.”

In less than three years, Bell has grown from largely an unknown driver to one in serious pursuit of both a second straight NASCAR championship — he won a Trucks title last year driving for Busch — and a shot at a ride at the sport’s highest level.
Bell got something of a late start to NASCAR, at least compared to some of his fellow drivers who were in a stock car before they even graduated high school.

Bell ran a pair of K&N races and seven Trucks events in 2015, winning for the first time on the dirt at Eldora. Bell showed enough promise to land a full-time truck ride with Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2016, winning just once but finishing in the top 10 in 19 of 23 events. Last season was the first of consecutive breakout seasons for Bell. He won five times and finished in the top five 15 times, and he clinched the championship by finishing second at Homestead.

Bell moved up yet again in 2018, landing a 23-race Xfinity deal with JGR after running just eight times in the series — including a win at Kansas in 2017.

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

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Paul DeJong had three hits and three RBIs, Yadier Molina also had three hits and drove in a run, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs 5-2 before a season-high crowd of 47,169 at Busch Stadium. DeJong’s RBI triple, just the sixth for the Cardinals this season, tied the game at 1 in the third and Jose Martinez followed with an RBI single to give St. Louis the lead.

SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle Mariners have bolstered their bullpen by acquiring right-handed reliever Sam Tuivailala from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for minor-league pitcher Seth Elledge. Tuivailala is 3-3 with a 3.69 ERA in 31 appearances for St. Louis this season, his second full season in the big leagues. Tuivailala will join a bullpen that’s been worked extensively in numerous close ball games.

NEW YORK (AP) — The game between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees has been postponed because of rain. The game never started and was called a half-hour after it was supposed to begin. The game will be made up as part of a split doubleheader Saturday.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Milwaukee Brewers have acquired third baseman Mike Moustakas from the Kansas City Royals, making their second deal in as many days as the club makes a push for its first playoff appearance since 2011. The Brewers sent outfielder Brett Phillips and pitcher Jorge Lopez to the Royals, who are in last place in the AL Central.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — Eric Bieniemy has taken over as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator after Matt Nagy left to become the head coach in Chicago. The former running back is the first coach whom Reid has elevated to that job who wasn’t a quarterback. But Bieniemy has proven an astute observer of the game during his time in Kansas City, giving Reid confidence he’s up to the task.

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Christopher Bell has been one of NASCAR’s rising young stars for the past few years. He has been red hot late. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver and the No. 20 have won two straight races in the Xfinity Series. The 23-year-old Xfinity rookie from Oklahoma heads into Saturday night’s race at Iowa Speedway seeking to become the first series regular with a three-race winning streak since Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 1999.