Warriors take out Potters

BELOIT — The freshman doubles team of Everett Zippay and Eli Tice earned their first varsity victory in highlighting West Branch’s 4-1 win over East Liverpool in tennis action Wednesday.

West Branch improves to 6-3 heading into today’s home match against Louisville.

FIRST SINGLES: Cameron McCartney (WB) def. Rowan Stokes, 6-3, 6-0.

SECOND SINGLES: Jeremy Augustein (WB) def. Andrew Dalton, 6-0, 6-0.

THIRD SINGLES: Connor Loper (WB) def. Logan Cornell, 6-0, 6-0.

FIRST DOUBLES: Brady Dawson-Garrett Cooper (EL) def. Austin Hawk-Damon Edwards, 6-4, 4-6, 10-6.

SECOND DOUBLES: Everett Zippay-Eli Tice (WB) def. Hunter Estell-Brayden Schwerha, 6-1, 6-0.

Flyers on the verge of sweep

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Trevor Zegras, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler scored three goals on four shots in the second period in Philadelphia’s first home playoff game in eight years, pushing the Flyers to the brink of a sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 5-2 Game 3 win on Wednesday night in their best-of-seven first-round series.

Game 4 is Saturday night in Philadelphia.

The Flyers’ trio of goal scorers gave their raucous fans more reason to celebrate than just a first home playoff game since April 22, 2018, and first home playoff win since April 20, 2016, they can clinch their first playoff series win since the 2020 bubble season — and they can do it against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.

Dan Vladar, shaken up a bit in the third with an apparent right hand or wrist injury, stopped 28 shots and again outplayed embattled Stuart Skinner in net.

Not long after Vladar was hit, Erik Karlsson scored on the power play to cut it to 3-2.

Forget the rally. Noah Cates put the finishing touches on one of the biggest Flyers’ wins in the last 16 years with a power-play goal for a 4-2 lead. Owen Tippett added an empty-netter in the waning minutes.

The Flyers wasted all the pregame energy in a hurry when Evgeni Malkin scored a power-play goal only 4:18 into the game. The Penguins were doomed by an 0 for 5 effort on the power play in Game 2 and Crosby went scoreless in Pittsburgh. Crosby’s assist helped the Penguins, who had the seventh-ranked power play in the regular season, score their first power-play goal in eight attempts in the series.

Malkin’s 29th career postseason power play goal tied him with Mario Lemieux for most in Penguins history.

The game erupted in the second period into a scene straight out of the day when the old school enforcer of the Broad Street Bullies era roamed the ice.

Penguins forward Bryan Rust slammed Travis Konecny to the ice and smothered the Flyers forward and all the lines joined the fray until they were separated by officials. Konecny ripped off his helmet and dropped his gloves and beckoned Rust to fight him. No dice. They instead traded verbal barbs from the penalty box.

The Flyers and Penguins could have held team photo day inside their respective penalty boxes.

Rust got four minutes while four of his teammates joined him and Konecny and four of his teammates tagged along inside a jammed box.

Public address announcer Lou Nolan had just started to rattle off the list of names — “the penalties, we think … ” — when Zegras ripped one past Skinner for the power-play goal that evened the score 1-1. The Flyers mobbed Zegras and pinned him in celebration against the penalty box.

Ristolainen — whose 820 regular season games before making the playoffs were the most of any active player — made it 2-1 and Flyers started fans started derisive “Skinner! Skinner” chants that echoed long after the go-ahead goal. Seeler scored 2:12 later on a shot from the point for the 3-1 lead against — and made it 3 of 4 on Skinner after he stopped the first 18 shots.

Cruz’s blast is hardest hit homer

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Oneil Cruz had the hardest-hit homer in the majors this season, a three-run shot off the top of the right-field foul pole in the ninth inning that powered the Pittsburgh Pirates to an 8-4 win over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night.

The Pirates took a 5-4 lead in the ninth when Nick Gonzales broke for the plate on pinch-hitter Jake Mangum’s one-out chopper to third base off Cole Winn (1-1). Josh Jung’s throw home pulled catcher Kyle Higashioka into foul territory, and Higashioka could not make the tag.

Cruz followed with his 116.9 mph liner that bounced off the top of the foul pole and into the stands. It was the second hardest-hit ball in the history of Globe Life Field, which opened in 2020.

Pittsburgh’s big ninth gave Gregory Soto (1-0) his first win as a Pirate, following his first blown save. The lefty reliever allowed Jake Burger’s two-run single in the eighth that tied the score at 4-all. Dennis Santana pitched a perfect ninth for his third save in four opportunities.

Bryan Reynolds’ fifth-inning single, which produced his 500th career RBI, was part of a three-run frame that gave the Pirates a 4-2 lead. Reynolds is tied with Bobby Bonilla for the most RBIs by a Pirates switch-hitter. He also scored Pittsburgh’s first run on Marcell Ozuna’s first-inning double.

Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft set career highs with seven innings and 94 pitches, allowing Jung’s two-run homer in the second inning among four hits. Ashcraft grew up about 100 miles south of Globe Life Field near Waco.

Jung has an RBI in a career-best six consecutive games.

Texas starter Jack Leiter, who turned 26 on Tuesday, allowed four runs, three earned, in five innings. He hasn’t won since his first start this season, at Baltimore on March 30.

With a single and a walk, Pittsburgh’s Ryan O’Hearn has reached base in 20 of 22 games.

WNBA sets record 216-game TV slate

NEW YORK (AP) — A record 216 WNBA regular-season games and events will be available on multiple broadcast platforms throughout the year. The league is in its 30th season. It will have games on ABC/ESPN, CBS, Amazon Prime Video, ION, NBC, USA Sports and NBA TV. ESPN and ABC will broadcast 30 games in honor of the milestone year for the league. Thirteen of those, including the All-Star Game, will be on ABC.