Buckeyes down Penguins

COLUMBUS — Ohio State scored eight runs in the first inning to knock off Youngstown State 12-1 in softball action on Wednesday.

Youngstown State fell to 4-22. Ohio State is 22-6-1.

Grace Pilaczynski had a hit and RBI for the Penguins.

The Buckeyes came into the game averaging 7.80 runs per game, good for 14th-best nationally, and have 60 home runs on the season. All nine of Ohio State’s everyday starters are batting over .300.

Mount St. Mary’s has Duke next

DAYTON (AP) — Dola Adebayo and Jedy Cordilla each scored 22 points as Mount St. Mary’s defeated American University 83-72 in an NCAA Tournament matchup of No. 16 seeds at the First Four on Wednesday night.

The Mountaineers (23-12) earned a date with No. 1 seed Duke on Friday in an East Region game at Raleigh, North Carolina.

“Today when we walked out there for the national anthem, it was a little bit of a holy cow moment for me,” Mountaineers coach Donny Lind said. “Now to get to move on with this group and let them keep playing and to go down to Raleigh and play Duke is awesome. We’ve got to get ready and give them everything we’ve got.”

Geoff Sprouse led American (22-13) with 18 points on six 3-pointers off the bench. Elijah Stephens scored 12.

“This is going to hurt for a while, but I’m going to flip the page,” Eagles coach Duane Simpkins said. “We’ve got six very good freshmen coming in, and we’re going to start to develop a game plan of how to get better. We’ll be back.”

American leading scorer Matt Rogers injured his right knee four minutes into the game.

Rogers attempted to play through the pain, but with 5:28 remaining in the first half he fell to the court, was helped off and did not return. Rogers, who averages 17 points per game, finished with seven points in eight minutes. He watched the second half from the bench on crutches.

“Yeah, I feel terrible for him,” Lind said. “His versatility really stood out, and his will. He plays really, really hard. He’s emotional in a great way for their team.”

Both teams were shooting better than 60% and went a combined 8 of 19 from 3-point range through the first 10 minutes. Dallas Hobbs beat the buzzer with a 3 to put Mount St. Mary’s ahead 48-38 at halftime.

Hobbs finished with 17 points.

“I was nervous,” Hobbs said. “It’s safe to say this was the biggest game I’ve played in in my life.”

Mount St. Mary’s was missing leading 3-point shooter Carmelo Pacheco, who hasn’t played since breaking a finger in the regular-season finale.

But the Mountaineers stayed hot from long range in the second half. Malcolm Dread’s 3-pointer put them ahead 64-51 with 11:26 left.

“Obviously, offense was clicking pretty well for us,” Lind said. “But credit to American. They battled the whole time, obviously with losing (Rogers) early, but they showed no letup.”

Mount St. Mary’s improved to 3-6 in the NCAA Tournament. Up next, the ACC champion Blue Devils.

“It means a lot to the university,” Hobbs said. “As far as playing Duke next, our mentality is the same thing, just going in and following the game plan, follow what Coach says, and hopefully go out there and get a win.”

Packers want tush push gone

The Green Bay Packers have formally proposed a rule change to ban the tush push and the Detroit Lions proposed that playoff seeding be done based on record instead of automatically placing division winners in the top four spots.

Teams made several other proposals released Wednesday that will be added to additional ones made by the competition committee to be considered at the league meetings later this month, including a change to the overtime rule and the so-called legal tampering period in free agency.

Any rule change must be approved by 24 out of 32 team owners.

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said last month at the scouting combine that his team wanted to ban the tush push, which is a modified quarterback sneak where two or three teammates line up behind the quarterback and push him forward to help him try to gain the yardage necessary for a first down or touchdown.

Philadelphia has used the play successfully behind Jalen Hurts for the past three seasons in short-yardage situations, including during a 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59. Other teams have tried to use it as well but without the success of the Eagles.

The proposed rule states that no offensive player may “immediately at the snap, push or throw his body against a teammate, who was lined up directly behind the snapper and received the snap, to aid him in an attempt to gain yardage.” Doing so would result in a 10-yard penalty.

The playoff change proposal by the Lions would have led to significant changes last season when Minnesota had to go on the road for a wild-card game against the Rams despite winning four more games than Los Angeles in the regular season. The Vikings would have hosted a game as the third seed under the proposal.

The Chargers also went on the road as a wild-card team against division-winning Houston despite having one additional win.

Under the proposed rule, the first tiebreaker among tied teams would be based on winning the division.

The Eagles proposed a change in overtime rules to align it more like the playoffs when each team is guaranteed an opportunity to score. — AP

The proposal would extend regular-season overtime from 10 minutes to 15 and the game wouldn’t end if the team that got the ball first scored a touchdown.

League executive Troy Vincent said last month that changes were needed to overtime rules to decrease the advantage of winning the coin toss. Receiving the ball first has become more of an advantage than before 2011, when overtime was sudden death. Receiving teams won 56.8% of overtime games from 2017-24, up from 55.4% from 2001-11.

In other proposed changes:

¯The Lions proposed that illegal contact and defensive holding penalties would not give the offense an automatic first down.

¯The Steelers proposed that teams would be allowed to have one video call or phone call with prospective unrestricted free agents from other teams and their agents during the two-day negotiating window before the start of the league year. Currently teams are allowed to talk only to agents during this period. It also would allow for teams to arrange travel for prospective free agents as long as the travel didn’t start until after the league year.

¯The Lions proposed that players put on injured reserve before or on the day that rosters are cut to 53 shouldn’t count on the 90-man roster limit, unless they will be designated to return during the season.

¯Several clubs proposed allowing teams to prepare the special kicking balls before the day of the game like they can with regular balls.

¯Washington proposed allowing teams to obtain scouting credentials for games in Weeks 17 and 18 for potential playoff opponents in the conference and requiring teams hosting wild-card games to grant scouting credentials to any team in their conference that is in the playoffs.