North-South coming up

MASSILLON — West Branch wide receiver Jeremiah Thomas, West Branch defensive lineman Zach Coffee and Salem defensive back Cletis Monroy will play in the Div. IV-VII Ohio High School Football Coaches Association All-Star Game set for Saturday at Massillion Paul Brown Stadium. The first game featuring the Div. I-III all-stars will begin at 11 a.m. with the Div. IV-VII game to follow. Tickets are $10 and include admission to both games.

Boston Marathoners

BOSTON — Two area women competed in the Boston Marathon on Monday.

Crestview High School graduate Tanner Hoffer, 24 of East Palestine, placed 13,876th overall and 4,311th in her gender with a time of 3 hours, 26 minutes and 34 seconds. She was 3,055th in her division.

Former Youngstown State runner and Minerva High School graduate Mackenzie Scott, 26 of Minerva, placed 10,145th overall and 2,305th in her gender in 3:14:45. She was 1,887th in her division.

Mooney breaks Branch

BELOIT — Cardinal Mooney jumped on West Branch’s boys tennis team for a 4-1 win on Monday.

Mooney is 8-1, while West Branch fell to 5-2.

West Branch hosts Boardman today.

Cardinal Mooney 4, West Branch 1

FIRST SINGLES: Max Marino (CM) def. Austin Hawk 6-2, 6-0

SECOND SINGLES: Mihali Frangos (CM) def. Damen Edwards 6-1, 7-6 (7-5)

THIRD SINGLES: Cameron McCartney (WB) def. Brendan Markey 6-0, 6-0

FIRST DOUBLES: Pierce Jones-Dimitri Zoumzis (CM) def. Jeremy Augustine-Blake Robbins 1-6, 6-3, 7-5

SECOND DOUBLES: Sam Scott-Nyi Thant (CM) def. Connor Loper-Mason Cosma 4-6, 6-1, 6-2

Guardians routed by Astros

CLEVELAND (AP) — Isaac Paredes hit his first two home runs of the season and Christian Walker also went deep as the Houston Astros beat the Cleveland Guardians 9-2 on Monday night for just their third victory in 15 games.

Walker lined a two-run shot to left-center in the first inning to open the scoring. The first baseman snapped an 0-for-15 slump by going 3 for 5 with three runs.

Paredes broke a 2-all tie with a leadoff homer to left field in the fourth that sparked a four-run inning. His first longball of the year came in his 76th plate appearance. Paredes, who homered at least 19 times in each of the last four seasons, added a solo shot in the eighth to close the scoring.

Paredes and Carlos Correa each had three hits. Correa’s two-run single capped the fourth-inning outburst and put the Astros in front 6-2.

Spencer Arrighetti (2-0) pitched five innings and gave up two runs, five hits and four walks while striking out three. The Astros are 9-15 after beginning the season with a 6-3 mark.

Slade Cecconi (0-3) was tagged for seven runs (six earned) in five innings. Brayan Rocchio went 3 for 3 with a walk for the Guardians, who had won three of four.

Astros center fielder Taylor Trammell exited in the third inning after injuring his left groin while running the bases. Houston infielder Nick Allen (mid-back spasms) was placed on the 10-day injured list before the game.

Up next

The middle game of the series is set for Tuesday night, with Astros RHP Ryan Weiss (0-2, 6.75 ERA) facing LHP Parker Messick (3-0, 1.05), who took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against Baltimore last Thursday.

Blue Jays take the bus

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — A mechanical issue with their charter plane forced the Toronto Blue Jays to bus from Phoenix to Southern California on Sunday night, a six-hour drive on a dark desert highway that got the team to its Orange County hotel at around 12:30 a.m.

“I felt like I was back in the Northwest League,” manager John Schneider said before Monday night’s series opener against the Los Angeles Angels. “But we made the best of it, we all got here safe, and we’re ready to go.”

Schneider said he was informed by Blue Jays traveling secretary Rodney Hiemstra of the mechanical problem at about 4 p.m. on Sunday, as the Blue Jays were finishing a 10-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“There was an issue with the joystick, which is pretty important — apparently, it’s used for takeoffs and landings,” Schneider said. “So the options were to get a new plane, which would have had to fly down from Vancouver and wouldn’t have landed until 10 p.m., or drive. We took a team vote, and the team voted to bus.”

While pitcher Dylan Cease, who was Monday night’s scheduled starter, flew commercial from Phoenix to Orange County, the team had to unload all the luggage and food from the charter plane and drive it all back to Chase Field. There, it was loaded onto three buses — two for players and one for the rest of the traveling party of about 40, which included the coaching staff.

“The math was a little off,” Schneider said. “It worked out way better for the players, but there was a whole lot of doubling up for us. I had my own two seats, and I still had cases of water around me, and you feel bad reclining on people.”

Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer was on the losing side of the vote — he preferred the team fly to Orange County — but the veteran right-hander was still able to find some humor in the situation.

“I got reprimanded by Max for electing to travel that way,” Schneider said as he showed reporters a letter Scherzer printed out for the manager. “So we’re going to go to a trial in kangaroo court.

“I was like, ‘Max, why don’t you just buy a plane? You’ve got plenty of cash.’ Most of the guys who were playing (Monday night) wanted to get out of there.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb