Category: Scores

High School Boys Basketball – Friday January 6, 2017

Quaker Valley – 78

Beaver Falls – 58

Guentzel scores twice in a 3-1 victory, Penguins even series with Capitals

Guentzel scores twice, Penguins even series with Capitals
By WILL GRAVES, AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jake Guentzel scored twice to push his playoff total to a league-leading 10, Matt Murray stopped 20 shots and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals 3-1 in Game 4 to even their tense Eastern Conference semifinal on Thursday night.
Evgeni Malkin added his fourth goal of the playoffs for Pittsburgh as the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions pushed back following a chaotic Game 3 that included an illegal hit by Washington forward Tom Wilson that led to a three-game suspension.
T.J. Oshie scored for the Capitals, but Washington struggled to find much operating room. Alex Ovechkin failed to register a shot on goal for just the third time in 107 career playoff games. Braden Holtby finished with 21 saves but couldn’t quite get a handle on Malkin’s belly-flop shot attempt late in the second period that put Pittsburgh in front to stay.
Game 5 is Saturday night in Washington.
The Capitals grabbed brief control of the series amid all of the Wilson-led Game 3 chippiness when Ovechkin baseball-batted home the winning goal with 1:07 to play. True playoff momentum for Washington, however, has been problematic for decades. The franchise is 6-11 in series in which it led 2-1 after three games, the worst mark in NHL history.
Given a chance to push Pittsburgh to the brink of elimination, Washington instead struggled to generate much pressure outside of the power play. Devante Smith-Pelly replaced Wilson on the top line with Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, but Pittsburgh kept the clamps on, and Murray, who admitted he was “shaky” in Game 3, looked far steadier this time around.
Wilson’s absence brought a sense of normalcy. The vitriol calmed a bit, replaced by the taut intensity that’s come to define one of the NHL’s marquee rivalries.
Guentzel gave the Penguins the lead 9:21 into the second period when he stood on the doorstep and banged home a rebound of Dominik Simon’s shot for his ninth of the playoffs and his 20th point of the postseason. Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier in 1988 are the last two players to reach 20 points in 10 or fewer postseason games.
The 23-year-old, however, is still learning. He committed a slashing penalty after putting the Penguins in front, and Oshie’s shot from the slot 12:55 into the second tied it.
Malkin went to his belly to put Pittsburgh back in front with 2:33 to go in the second. The Russian star flung himself at the puck during a scrum in the crease, the puck just flitting over the goal line following a scramble. There was no initial goal call on the play, reminiscent of a sequence in Game 2 in which the red goal light remained unlit after Pittsburgh’s Patric Hornqvist jabbed at it from in front.
Replays in Game 2 proved inconclusive and the Capitals held on. This time, the review was kinder to the Penguins. Video clearly showed the puck inching across the line, and it stood after the Capitals challenged due to goalie interference.
Unlike Game 3, in which the Penguins let a one-goal lead get away over the final 20 minutes, Guentzel added an empty-netter with 58 seconds remaining to assure the series will go at least six games. Hardly new territory for either club. Nine of their 11 playoff meetings have gone at least six games.
NOTES: Pittsburgh F Carl Hagelin played 16:11 while wearing a full face shield in his return from an upper-body injury that forced him to miss the first three games of the series. … The Capitals have scored a playoff goal in nine of 10 playoff games. … The loss was Washington’s first on the road in the playoffs (4-1). … The Capitals were 1 for 3 on the power play. The Penguins were 2 for 4.
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More NHL hockey: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey

Turner, Zimmerman HR, Nats beat Pirates 3-1 for 4-game sweep

Turner, Zimmerman HR, Nats beat Pirates 3-1 for 4-game sweep
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trea Turner and Ryan Zimmerman homered in the sixth inning and the Washington Nationals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 Thursday to complete a four-game sweep.
Jeremy Hellickson and four relievers combined on a five-hitter for Washington, which has won a season-high five in a row. The Nationals won with just four hits.
Sammy Solis (1-1) retired the only batter he faced, ending the sixth to keep the game scoreless. Sean Doolittle recorded the last five outs for his sixth save in as many attempts.
Trevor Williams (4-2) allowed only two runners over the first five innings. Wilmer Difo led off with a single, and after Bryce Harper flied out, Turner hit his second home run of the season.
Two batters later, Zimmerman connected for his fifth homer.
Pittsburgh loaded the bases in the eighth against Ryan Madson on a hit batter, a single and an error. Doolittle entered and got Gregory Polanco on an RBI grounder and retired Starling Marte on a flyball.
Hellickson pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings, retiring 13 in a row before yielding a two-out single in the sixth to Adam Frazier. That ended the right-hander’s day, as manager Martinez was unwilling to permit Hellickson to venture too deep into Pittsburgh’s lineup for a third time.
Hellickson struck out four and allowed three hits. He has not earned a victory since Aug. 25 when he was with Baltimore, a span of nine starts.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Nationals: 3B Anthony Rendon (bruised toe) will serve as the designated hitter Thursday night as he starts a rehabilitation assignment at Class A Potomac.
UP NEXT
Pirates: RHP Nick Kingham (1-0, 0.00 ERA), who took a perfect game into the seventh inning of his major league debut Sunday against St. Louis, gets another turn in the rotation Friday as Pittsburgh begins a three-game series in Milwaukee.
Nationals: Washington’s homestand continues as Philadelphia arrives for a three-game series. LHP Gio Gonzalez (3-2, 2.67) starts Friday and is 10-7 with a 2.69 ERA in 23 career starts against the Phillies.

Bucs fall to the Nationals 3-2!! Costly errors ends Bucs winning streak!!!

Roark goes 7 innings, gets rare RBI as Nats beat Pirates 3-2
By BEN NUCKOLS, AP Sports Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tanner Roark pitched seven efficient innings and drove in his first run since 2016, and the Washington Nationals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 on Monday night.
Roark (2-2) allowed two runs on six hits, struck out four and induced two double-play grounders for his first win since April 2 as the Nationals ended a disappointing April with their second straight victory.
Starting pitcher Jameson Taillon (2-3) drove in the first run for the Pirates with a two-out double to deep left-center in the fifth. He worked six innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, as NL Central-leading Pittsburgh lost for the first time since his previous start. The Pirates had won five straight.
Bryce Harper drew two intentional walks and struck out twice in four plate appearances. The former MVP now has 38 walks and eight intentional passes this season, both tops in the majors, as the injury-depleted Nationals have struggled to protect him in the lineup.
Harper’s first intentional walk came in the third after he had worked the count to 2-1 with Trea Turner on second base. Taillon then struck out Howie Kendrick — who went 0-for-4 while batting cleanup for the third time this season — and Matt Adams to end the threat.
Batting in the fourth with runners on first and second, Roark bunted the first pitch foul. Then he pulled the bat back as Taillon threw a wild pitch, allowing the runners to advance. Roark hit the next pitch up the middle to score Matt Wieters and put the Nationals ahead 2-1, his second hit this season and his fifth career RBI. Turner followed with a run-scoring single, one of his three hits on the night.
Corey Dickerson homered to deep left leading off the seventh to pull the Pirates within one. Roark then retired the next three batters, fanning the final two.
Ryan Madson retired the side in the eighth and Brandon Kintzler worked the ninth for his first save in place of regular closer Sean Doolittle, who had pitched in the previous three games.
Wilmer Difo had two hits and drove in Washington’s first run with a second-inning single.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Nationals: 2B Daniel Murphy (offseason knee surgery) was back with the team after spending two weeks at extended spring training in West Palm Beach, Florida, and was scheduled to be re-evaluated by team doctors. He has been hitting, running and taking ground balls, Martinez said. There is still no timetable for his return. … 3B Anthony Rendon (left toe contusion) became eligible to come off the 10-day disabled list on Sunday, and no decision has been made on whether he will have a minor league rehab assignment.
Pirates: CF Starling Marte was out of the starting lineup for the first time this season but popped out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth. … LHP Enny Romero said he had been trying to pitch through pain in his throwing shoulder before he told team trainers about the injury on Sunday. Pittsburgh had planned to designate him for assignment but instead placed him on the 10-day DL, retroactive to Thursday. “It’s a new organization. He didn’t want to come in and say he wasn’t ready to pitch or that he couldn’t pitch,” Hurdle said. “After we had that conversation, I guess there’s a process you go through where you contact MLB and get the verification that everything’s OK, and it’s OK now that he’s on DL.”
SHORT MAN
The Nationals shook up their bullpen again, recalling right-hander Wander Suero from Triple-A Syracuse and sending right-hander Austin Voth back to Syracuse one day after he was promoted to the big leagues. Voth has been a starter for nearly his entire minor league career, while Suero is a reliever with 30 career minor league saves.
Suero had a chance to make the team out of spring training before he suffered an oblique injury on March 9. He was 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in four appearances for Syracuse but did not allow a run in his last three outings.
“I like his ability to get both lefty hitters and righty hitters out. He’s got a really good cutter and he throws strikes,” Martinez said.
UP NEXT
Last year’s NL Cy Young Award winner, Max Scherzer (5-1, 1.62 ERA), who threw his first of two career no-hitters against the Pirates on June 20, 2015, starts for Washington. Pittsburgh right-hander Chad Kuhl (3-1, 4.55) allowed six runs on 10 hits in four innings in his previous start against the Nationals last May.
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More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball