The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.

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

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — James Hinchcliffe passed Josef Newgarden with just over 40 laps left to win the IndyCar race at the Iowa Speedway on Sunday, his first victory of the season. Hinchcliffe, a series veteran who failed to qualify for this year’s Indianapolis 500, picked up his first win since Long Beach in 2017 and his second win at Iowa.

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Stock car racing team Venturini Motorsports has had a tradition of employing women that stretches back for decades. On June 29, the ARCA outfit made history _ starting three female drivers in the same race for the first time in the modern era of the sport. Neither Natalie Decker, Leilani Münter nor Toni Breidinger made a push for the podium at Chicagoland Speedway. But simply by starting as a trio, they helped raise the profile of women in a sport long dominated by men.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pablo Sandoval homered and had five RBIs to back an uneven start by Madison Bumgarner as the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals 13-8. Andrew McCutchen and Alen Hanson each added three hits.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kaito Yuki is headed to the Kansas City Royals organization instead of attending high school in Japan. The team signed Yuki, a 16-year-old pitcher, out of junior high to a standard seven-year minor league contract. He is thought to be the youngest Japanese player to sign with a major league club _ and the first to do so out of junior high school.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Rick Porcello pitched seven effective innings, Andrew Benintendi had four hits and scored two runs and the Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 7-4 Sunday. The Red Sox hit .385, 45 for 111, had 68 base runners in sweeping the three-game series, and have won six straight.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Alcides Escobar was not in the Kansas City Royals’ lineup for the first time since 2015 as the struggling club made a plethora of moves. Escobar had started 421 consecutive games, the longest streak in the majors, before Royals manager Ned Yost benched him against the Boston Red Sox.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Milwaukee Brewers activated centerfielder Lorenzo Cain off the 10-day disabled list and placed outfielder Ryan Braun and catcher Manny Pina on the DL as part of eight roster moves on Sunday. Right-hander Aaron Wilkerson was optioned to Triple-A Colorado Springs and left-handed reliever Mike Zagurski was designated for assignment. Top pitching prospect Corbin Burnes, catcher Jacob Nottingham, and infielder Nate Orf were called up from Triple-A.

Trips to the State Softball Tournament will be on the line tonight (Monday night) for Classes 1A, 2A, and 3A playing Regional Finals. We’ll have the Class 3A Region 4 Final between Atlantic and Clarke on KJAN. Pregame at 6:40pm and first pitch at 7pm. Here’s a look at area games.

Class 1A

Region 6: Wayne @ Martensdale St. Marys

Region 7: Glidden-Ralston @ Collins-Maxwell

Region 8: West Monona @ Akron-Westfield

Class 2A

Region 2: Mount  Ayr @ Logan-Magnoliq

Region 3: Earlham @ IKM-Manning

Class3A

Region 4: Clarke @ Atlantic ON KJAN

CLASS 3A

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Canadian James Hinchcliffe passed Josef Newgarden with just over 40 laps left to win the IndyCar race at the Iowa Speedway on Sunday, his first victory of the season. Hinchcliffe, a series veteran who failed to qualify for this year’s Indianapolis 500, picked up his first win since Long Beach in 2017 and his second win at Iowa. Hinchcliffe also took first on the 0.894-mile track in 2013.
Spencer Pigot was a career-best second, followed by Takuma Sato. Newgarden dominated much of the race, leading 229 of the 300 laps before Hinchcliffe seized control.

Regular season baseball scores:
Denison-Schleswig 4 , Keokuk 2
Treynor 6 , Council Bluffs, Thomas Jefferson 5

District Scores:

CLASS 2A:

East Sac County 9 , Cherokee, Washington 5
Missouri Valley 17 , ACGC 5 (6 Innings)
Mount Ayr 2 , Albia 1
Panorama, Panora 4 , Southeast Valley 3
Red Oak 8 , Clarinda 6
Shenandoah 3 , AHSTW, Avoca 2
Unity Christian, Orange City 3 , OA-BCIG 0
West Central Valley, Stuart 9 , Logan-Magnolia 4
Woodward-Granger 10 , Woodward Academy 0 (5 Innings)

Class 4A

Region 1

Denison-Schleswig 10, Storm Lake 0

Sgt. Bluff-Luton 12, LeMars 3

Region 2

Des Moines Hoover 8, Winterset 3

Lewis Central 4, Glenwood 0

Region 3

ADM 5, Carroll 0

Norwalk 5, Boone 1

Class 5A

Region 2

Ankeny 12, CB Thomas Jefferson 0

WDM Valley 10, Des Moines Roosevelt 0

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

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Andrew Benintendi homered, doubled, walked a career-high four times and scored four runs as the Boston Red Sox routed the Kansas City Royals 15-4. Mookie Betts had four hits, raising his American League-leading average to .343. Ten Red Sox players had RBIs as they scored a season high in runs. They scored 11 runs after the sixth inning.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Andrew McCutchen hit an RBI single to drive in Hunter Pence from second base in the seventh inning and the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 to snap a four-game losing streak. Pablo Sandoval homered, Buster Posey singled twice and Brandon Crawford scored on a wild pitch to help the Giants’ slumping offense break out. Reyes Moronta retired one batter to earn the win. Will Smith pitched the ninth for his third save.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Carlos Martinez pitched seven effective innings for his third consecutive win and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants 3-2 on Saturday. Martinez allowed one run on six hits with three strikeouts and did not walk a batter for the third time this season. The right-hander also drove in the Cardinals’ first run with an RBI double in the third. Kolton Wong had two hits and scored a run, disgruntled outfielder Dexter Fowler added a sacrifice fly and Francisco Pena singled in a run.

Yadier Molina was given the day off after experiencing soreness in his right shoulder. LHP Tyler Lyons (elbow strain) began his rehab assignment and threw 13 pitches in one scoreless inning for Triple-A Memphis. Lyons has been out since June 6. RHP Luke Gregerson (shoulder impingement) threw nine pitches in a rehab appearance with Double-A Springfield.
UP NEXT
Giants LHP Madison Bumgarner (1-3, 2.58 ERA) pitches the series finale Sunday against Cardinals RHP Jack Flaherty (3-4, 3.19). Bumgarner has lost five of his last six starts against St. Louis. Flaherty allowed five runs in four innings during his only career appearance against San Francisco in 2017.

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Defending IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden’s up-and-down season is back on an upswing after a dominant win at Road America two weeks ago. Newgarden is back at Iowa Speedway — the scene of perhaps his most impressive performance back in 2016 — in hopes of closing the gap further on series leader Scott Dixon.

Newgarden is fourth, 50 points behind Dixon, despite a series-high three wins in 10 starts. That’s because the Tennessee-born Newgarden finished eighth or worse in a five-race stretch that began in Indianapolis and ended in Texas.

Newgarden got things going in the right direction in Wisconsin two weeks ago, leading all but two of 55 laps, and he feels as though his No. 1 Chevy will have an advantage after testing the newly designed aero package at Iowa on June 27.
Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power won his 52nd career pole on Saturday, with Newgarden set to start second. Ryan Hunter-Reay was third, followed by Simon Pagenaud.

“Us testing here is a benefit…(and) I think it’s more important this year just because it’s a new car — and Iowa is its own animal,” said Newgarden, who led a record 282 of 300 laps to win at Iowa two years ago. “Even having been to Phoenix, another short oval, I don’t think a lot of that really applies here because Iowa is just crazy unique. It’s a lot bumpier.”

Despite being one of the few drivers to run in each of Iowa’s previous 11 races, Dixon has never won here. His best finish was third in 2016 — even though he has claimed the pole three times. Dixon didn’t test here either, but he’s been dominant of late for Chip Ganassi Racing. Dixon has two wins (Belle Isle and Texas) during a stretch of six consecutive top-four finishes. He qualified sixth on Saturday.

Winning at Iowa typically isn’t a problem for the resurgent Hunter-Reay, who entered the weekend tied for second with Alexander Rossi, 45 points back of Dixon. Hunter-Reay took first for Andretti Autosport at Iowa in 2012 — the year he won the championship — and in 2014 and 2015. He was second in 2013 and tied a season high with a third-place finish a year ago.

Hunter-Reay’s No. 28 Honda also topped last month’s test in Newton as well, and he and his team have clearly found the speed that eluded Hunter-Reay during back-to-back disappointing seasons. But Hunter-Reay acknowledged that, between the new setups and what could be much warmer conditions on Sunday, it should be an interesting race to say the least. The qualifying results haven’t seemed to matter much at Iowa either, since no pole-sitter has gone on to win the race.

“We have some good momentum going here at Iowa,” Hunter-Reay said. “It’s just that nobody really knows how the race will play out. Once we get into 50 laps on tires, we still have to go another 20, 30 more. It’s going to be really light, very busy behind the wheel. Just a lot less downforce to deal with this year.”

w/ Chris Parks

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