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Buckeyes come to Wheeling
WHEELING, W.Va. -- The West Virginia University volleyball team will scrimmage Ohio State at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at Wheeling Park High School. Admission is free.
Valley needs one team
COLUMBIANA -- Valley Golf Club is looking to fill a two-man team for the Wednesday Night Beaver Golf League. Call (330) 482-9464 for details.
Salem X-tra Milers to meet
SALEM -- The Salem X-Tra Mile Club will meet at 7 p.m. Monday in the high school cafeteria.
Zines competes for YSU
WARREN -- Former United High School standout Mati Zines helped the Youngstown State women's golf team capture the YSU Spring Invitational on Monday.
The Penguins concluded the two-day tournament at Trumbull Country Club at 44-over par 620, including a 313 on Sunday and a 307 on Monday. The Penguins matched a single-season school record with their fifth tournament victory of the season.
Mercyhurst was second with a 656 (341-315), followed by Le Moyne College (N.Y.) with a 665 (329-336), St. Joseph's (Pa.) with a 673 (346-327) and LaSalle with a 679 (341-338).
Five YSU golfers placed in the top 10, led by sophomore Valentina Pena Anaya from Mexico City with a 5-over-par 149 (74-75) for a three-shot victory.
Zines was 15th out of 39 golfers with a 21-over 165 (82-83). Zines posted a 10 on a par 4 Monday, but responded with birdies at No. 15 and No. 17.
Youngstown State will continue its spring schedule on April 17-18 with the Therese Hession Buckeye Invitational at Ohio State University Golf Club's Scarlet Course.
Padres blank Buccos
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Germán Márquez is a winner with the San Diego Padres.
The right-hander pitched five effective innings in Monday night's 5-0 victory at Pittsburgh. He allowed six hits, struck out four and walked one in his second start with his new team.
The 31-year-old Márquez is trying to rebuild his career with San Diego. He won a spot in the team's rotation after agreeing to a minor league deal in February.
Márquez spent his first 10 seasons with Colorado, going 68-72 with a 4.67 ERA in 200 starts and three relief appearances. He missed most of the 2023 and 2024 seasons due to Tommy John surgery, and then struggled in his final year with the lowly Rockies.
Márquez went 3-16 with a 6.70 ERA in 26 starts in 2025. He recorded his first win of last season on May 11 and picked up his third and final victory on June 18.
Colorado finished with a 43-119 record, setting a franchise record for losses.
Márquez dropped his first start with San Diego when he surrendered four runs and eight hits in three innings in a 9-3 loss to San Francisco last week.
He threw 92 pitches against Pittsburgh, 56 for strikes. He got some help from Gold Glove outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr., who cut down Ryan O'Hearn when he attempted to score from second on Spencer Horwitz's single in the second.
The Pirates put a runner on third with one out in the fifth, but Márquez escaped the jam when he retired Brandon Lowe on a popup to third and Bryan Reynolds on a flyball to left.
Tigers are best replay challenger
NEW YORK (AP) -- Catchers were far more successful than batters through Major League Baseball's first full week of challenges to robot umpires, led by the Detroit Tigers and Dillon Dingler.
The overall success rate in the Automated Ball-Strike System was 55.2% (299 of 542), with fielding teams winning 59.7% of challenges (175 of 293), including 60.4% by catchers (169 of 280).
"I like it a little more. I was pretty staunch against it, which I still may be to some degree," New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
There were just 13 challenges by pitchers, who won six. Batters were successful on 49.8% (124 of 249).
"I think it's fun. It's its own game inside the game, almost," Tampa Bay catcher Hunter Feduccia said.
Success rate was up from 49.5% last year at Triple-A, where defense won 53.7% and batters 49.5%
Detroit won the highest percentage of calls at 75% (15 of 20) while Arizona was at 71%, and Baltimore and Cincinnati both 67%.
Minnesota called for the most challenges with 32, winning 20 for a 63% success rate. Texas had the fewest, winning 4 of 10.
Cleveland was the least successful at 32%, with Washington at 38% and St. Louis and Texas at 40%
Detroit catchers were 8-0, with seven wins by Dingler.
ABS' impact could be seen when Atlanta played at Arizona last Thursday. The Braves were ahead 2-1 when the Diamondbacks' Ryne Nelson threw a 3-2 curveball on the upper, outside corner to Ozzie Albies that was called a strike by Malachi Moore. Albies challenged and headed toward first even before ABS showed the pitch missed the strike zone by 1.1 inches. The walk started an eight-run rally in a 17-2 romp.
"In some of these games, it's had a more of a swinging effect on outcomes of at-bats and how things change than maybe even you thought," Miami manager Clayton McCullough said.
Logan O'Hoppe of the Los Angeles Angels had the most victories, successful on 10 of 12. The Marlins' AgustÌn RamÌrez won 7 of 9 and the Los Angeles Dodgers' Will Smith 8 of 11.
Seattle's Cal Raleigh won 4 of 9 and the Athletics' Shea Langeliers 3 of 9.
Among batters, Mark Vientos of the New York Mets and Iv'n Herrera both went 3-0. Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels was 3-1 along with Philadelphia's Kyle Schwarber and Tampa Bay's Jake Fraley.
Colorado's Hunter Goodman and Washington's Luis GarcÌa Jr. were both 0 for 3.
Boone said Yankees staff and players daily review challenges made and opportunities missed.
Players still are getting used to ABS. Washington's Jorbit Vivas tapped his helmet signaling for an appeal on March 31 when the Nationals already had exhausted their two challenges.
Among umpires, Mike Estabrook had 11 of 12 calls overturned (91.7%), Andy Fletcher had 15 of 17 (88.2%), Ron Kulpa and Paul Clemons each 7 of 9 (77.8%) and Chris Segal 10 of 13 (76.9%), according to taptochallenge.com.
Will Little had just 1 of 10 calls reversed while Erich Bacchus was perfect with no overturned calls in five challenges. Others with low overturn rates with at least five challenges included Emil JimÈnez (1 of 5), Jordan Baker (2 of 8), Ryan Additon and Nick Mahrley (both 2 of 7) and David Rackley (3 of 10).
Offense at record low
Offense again lagged through the first 139 games of the 2,430-game season.
The .234 big league batting average is down from .239 through 12 days last year (including the two games in Japan), when it finished at .245. The average usually increases as the weather warms. The full-season low of .237 was set in 1968.
Runs per game averaged 8.8, up from 8.7, and stolen bases dropped to 1.4 per game from 1.6
Fastball velocity at record high
Average fastball velocity is 94.6 mph, up from 94.1 mph through the first full week last year. The final figure increased in each of the last five seasons to a record 94.5 mph in 2025. It was 91.9 mph when MLB first started tracking in 2008.
"I wish I was facing the same pitching as I did my rookie year back when guys were throwing 88-mile-an-hour sinkers over the plate," said 33-year-old Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges. "That pitch doesn't exist anymore."
Game time
The average time of a nine-inning game is 2 hours, 43 minutes, up from 2:37 at this point last year, when it finished at 2:38.
Pitch clock violations averaged 0.17 per game, down from 0.22 through 139 games last year.
Attendance
MLB's average crowd of 31,725 through 138 dates was up 1.5% over 31,255 for the same period last year.