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

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals have stunningly fired manager Mike Matheny during his seventh season with the team hovering around .500. The Cardinals announced Matheny’s firing after an 8-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, a defeat that dropped St. Louis to 47-46 and 7 1/2 games back of the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs. Matheny went 591-473 as manager, and his tenure included a loss to the Boston Red Sox in the 2013 World Series.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jose Peraza had a career-best five hits, Scooter Gennett drove in two runs and the Cincinnati Reds waited out a pair of rain delays before beating the St. Louis Cardinals 8-2. Following the two days that totaled 2 hours, 43 minutes, Cincinnati trailed 2-0 after five innings before rallying for eight runs in its final four at-bats. St. Louis fired manager Mike Matheny after the game.

SILVIS, Ill. (AP) — Michael Kim took a five-shot lead at the John Deere Classic in a third round delayed twice for a total of roughly four hours because of bad weather and concerns over lightning. Kim closed with four straight birdies and shot a 7-under 64 for a three-day total of 22 under. Bronson Burgoon is 17 under and Australian Matt Jones is another shot back.

Class 3A
District 15 Semi-finals
Harlan 11, Carroll 1 (in 5 innings)
Denison-Schleswig 15, Atlantic 2 (in 5 innings)
*Harlan faces Denison-Scheswig in the District finals 7-p.m. Mon., @ Harlan.

*Winterset plays Glenwood in the other 3A final, 7-p.m. Mon. @ Winterset

Class 2A Finals
District 16
Kuemper Catholic 5, MVAOCOU 4 (Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto-Charter Oak-Ute)
District 15
Treynor 12, Underwood 8

Class 1A Finals
District 13
Nodaway Valley 6, Lenox 1
District 14
St. Albert 14, Essex 4 (6 innings)
District 15
CAM 7, Audubon 6
District 16
Tri-Center 11, Ar-We-Va 1 (6 innings)

Atlantic got behind early and Denison continued to put runners on to beat the Trojans 15-2 in five innings in the Class 3-A District 15 semi-finals Saturday.

After rain moved the game back to Saturday, Denison looked ready and was aggressive early.  Swinging at several first pitches, the Monarchs put up three runs in the top of the first inning, with Jade Magnussen providing the first of his big hits with a two run triple.  Atlantic answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first, as Mason Goergen singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch and Chase Mullenix hit an RBI single.

But that was as close as the Trojans would get, as Denison scored one in the second, three more in the third and blew the game wide open in the fourth, sending 14 men to the plate and scoring eight runs.  Magnussen’s three run homer was the big blow.

Mullenix was the starter and loser for Atlantic, throwing 2 2/3 inning giving up seven runs, four earned, six hits, striking out two and walking three.  Coach Gaylord Schelling said his pitcher was constantly in the zone and Denison was ready.

The Monarchs scored their 15 runs on 11 hits , 5 walks and three batters were hit by pitches.

Dawson Dorhout pitched all five innings for Denison to get the win.  Dorhout gave up just two runs and four hits, struck out four and walked two.

Atlantic finishes the year 15-13.

Denison advances to the district final Monday night with a mark of 17-18.

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

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Quail hunters had good success this past season — despite a drop in the number of hunters. Wildlife biologist Todd Bogenschutz keeps track of the numbers.  “Quail harvest was up 11 percent — we went from 24-thousand to 27-thousand — and actually hunter numbers were down a little bit. So, the guys who went out and hunted did better than the guys last year and we had more hunters,” Bogenschutz says.

He says the increase in birds mirrors the strong population. “Our quail index last year was like the third highest in the last 22 years,” Bogenschutz says, “and we had a mild winter and they’ll nest all the way through September. They’ll double nest where pheasants don’t.”  Bogenschutz expects positive news from the August roadside survey. “I think quail numbers potentially could be pretty dang good again this fall,” Bogenschutz says.

The August roadside survey takes place August 1st to the 15th.

(Radio Iowa)

Pheasant hunters shot around 20-thousand fewer birds last hunting season compared to the year before. Iowa D-N-R wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz says the drop follows lower counts in the roadside surveys. “I kind of expected that because the roadside counts…were down 30 percent. We were in a drought when we did the counts last year, so we think things were probably a little better than that based on what hunters told us,” Bogenschutz says. “The roadside counts said the populations were down about 30 percent — the hunters said they were only down about ten percent.”

He says the drought meant there was less dew when the roadside counts were done and that led to less birds out in the morning — which impacted the overall count. Bogenschutz says the numbers have held pretty steady in recent years. “We’ve bounced up from the all-time lows when we were down to almost a hundred thousand. So we’ve been back up around the quarter-million mark these last couple of years, so we kind of hung right there. Last year we shot about 245-thousand, this year it was 221-thousand, so about 20-thousand different, right in that same ballpark,” Bogenschutz says.

The next pheasant number survey takes place in August and Bogenschutz says all the weather issues this year didn’t help pheasants nesting numbers. He says they numbers will be status quo at best and likely down. “Given the flooding is on par almost with 1993 levels. A lot of rain in May and June is not good at the peak of nesting. In April we had record snow in parts of the state and some of the birds can nest that early.”

There were 55-thousand hunters out this past season, which is down around four percent. He says the survey numbers likely impact the hunting plans of some. “I think hunters do look at the report, I think that’s why hunter numbers are down,” according to Bogenschutz. “They look at our forecast and if we said things are down there’s a few folks who tend not to go. I think when we say things are good or just word of mouth from other hunters, then we go up.”

While Bogenschutz expects the weather to impact the number of pheasants this season — he says southern Iowa had been much drier and that could make for better nesting and numbers there.

(Radio Iowa)

Class 1A District Finals
District 13 @ Lenox, 7-p.m.
Nodaway Valley vs. Lenox
District 14 @ St. Albert, 7-p.m.
Council Bluffs/St. Albert vs. Essex
District 15 @ Coon Rapids-Bayard, 7-p.m.
Audubon vs. CAM/Anita
District 16 @ Tri-Center, 7-p.m.
Tri-Center/Neola vs. Ar-We-Va/Westside

Class 2A District Finals
District 15 @ Underwood, 7-p.m.
Underwood Vs. Treynor
District 16 @ Kuemper Catholic/Carroll, 7-p.m.
Kuemper Catholic vs. MVAOCOU (Maple Valley-Anthon Oto-Charter Oak-Ute)

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

CHICAGO (AP) — Leury Garcia had three hits and three RBIs, All-Star Jose Abreu homered for the first time in July, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 9-6. Garcia doubled in two runs in the first, singled in the third and connected for a solo drive in the sixth. Omar Narvaez added a two-run homer in the eighth off Kevin McCarthy and Joakim Soria pitched the ninth for his 14th save in 17 chances.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Scooter Gennett and Dilson Herrera homered, Matt Harvey tossed five solid innings and the Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-1. Jesse Winker reached base four times and drove in three runs for the Reds. They won their second in a row against St. Louis after breaking a 13-game losing streak to the Cardinals on June 10.

SILVIS, Illinois (AP) — Michael Kim took a four-shot lead at the John Deere Classic in the Quad Cities, which was suspended twice because of weather concerns. Kim, who is winless in 84 career PGA Tour starts, was 16 under through 35 holes, with the second round still to be completed. Kim birdied eight of his first 14 holes without a bogey to race past first-round leader Steve Wheatcroft, who shot 68.

District 16 @ Winterset
Glenwood 17, Greene County 5 (5 innings)
Winterset 4, Creston 1 (Winterset & Glenwood will face off 7-p.m. Monday at Winterset for the chance to move on to Substate)

The Class 3-A District baseball games scheduled to be played at Harlan Friday were postponed due to rain. The games will be played on Saturday, July 14 at J.J. Jensen Park in Harlan.

The times have been moved up slightly. Atlantic will play Denison at 4:00 pm and Harlan will play Carroll in the second game, at about 6:00 pm.

We’ll have the Atlantic vs. Denison game live on KJAN AM 1220/FM 101.1 with the pre-game at 3:45 pm.

The Class 3-A District baseball games scheduled to be played at Harlan today have been postponed due to rain.  The games will be played on Saturday, July 14 at J.J. Jensen Park in Harlan.

The times have been moved up slightly.  Atlantic will play Denison at 4:00 pm and Harlan will play Carroll in the second game, at about 6:00 pm.

We’ll have the Atlantic vs. Denison game live on KJAN AM 1220/FM 101.1 with the pre-game at 3:45 pm.