CAUGHT ON FILM

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Troy’s first appearance in the College World Series has produced lots of Kodak moments for the Alabama school.

Only Troy’s photographers are having to use borrowed equipment to capture them after thieves stole cameras and lenses valued at $35,000 from the team bus.

The theft was discovered after Troy arrived at Charles Schwab Field for its game against Mississippi on Sunday. According to a police report, a Troy official reported the theft shortly before noon. The bus had been parked near the team hotel since about 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

Omaha Police spokesman Michael Pecha said Monday no arrests had been made and that the investigation continues.

The NCAA, local organizer CWS Inc. and host institutions Creighton and Nebraska-Omaha lent equipment to Troy photographers who shot pictures of the 12-8 win over the Rebels and shared some of their content with the school.

Adam Prendergast, Troy’s executive associate athletic director for communications, said he couldn’t thank them enough for the help to “capture what was a historic day for Troy Baseball and Troy Athletics.”

“The real story here is those that stepped in yesterday to help out,” he added. “Honestly, that’s the most important thing.”

Troy plays West Virginia in an elimination game at 2 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN).

SLAVIN’S GOLDEN YEAR

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jaccob Slavin tried not to think about the possibility. Now it is a reality.

He and the Carolina Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup on Sunday night put him in an exclusive club. Slavin became the second American and eighth player to hoist the Cup and take home an Olympic gold medal in the same year.

Ken Morrow until now was the only U.S. player to accomplish the feat. He was on 1980 “Miracle on Ice” Olympic team and a member of the New York Islanders as it started its dynasty of four titles in a row.

“I used to joke I was a trivia question for a lot of years: Who’s the only guy that ever did that? Only player I was at that time, not just American, but the only player,” Morrow said.

All the other players to do it are Canadian: Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan with Detroit in 2002; Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook with Chicago in 2010; and Drew Doughty with Los Angeles in 2014.

FREEDOM FIGHTERS

WASHINGTON (AP) — By the time Justin Gaethje pummeled his bloodied foe to a pulp and celebrated a championship win with a backflip off the top of the wire-mesh cage, then shook hands with President Donald Trump — and even fist-bumped Melania — this much about his company’s future was clear to the ultimate boss of UFC: Just say no to the White House.

“It was an amazing, experience, this was a one-of-one,” UFC CEO Dana White said.

“It will never happen again.”

Oh, not because the show dubbed Freedom 250 and ostensibly held to celebrate Trump’s 80th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s signing wasn’t by White’s accounts a smashing success. He crowed about merchandise sales and streaming service subscriptions and how UFC surpassed its goals in every metric he could list at a news conference that stretched well into the dawn’s early light Monday.

And the setting?

Forget it, almost impossible to top on a night when fighters essentially treated their walkouts like they were kids on a class trip. The all-male lineup toured the West Wing, the Oval Office, walked past presidential portraits, through the Roosevelt Room, the Cabinet Room — and the winners even got a meet-and-greet with Trump.

Gaethje skimmed the copy of the Declaration of Independence that hangs in the Oval Office and said a prayer before he made the unusually long walk to the cage. Gaethje battered Spanish-Georgian fighter Ilia Topuria in the main event and won the UFC lightweight title.

“Usually, I kind of blank out when it comes to getting ready to walk to the cage,” Gaethje said. “It was pretty crazy, looking at the Declaration of Independence. The original one. Their language was different. I’m not smart enough to read that.”

Gaethje also banked a whopping $825,000 in bonus money for winning “Performance of the Night” and “Fight of the Night” honors.

Trump stayed until the end of the seven-card show and generally seemed engaged with the fights — at one point he put on a white “USA” baseball cap — and certainly was all smiles each time a fighter who had a hand raised in victory then used it on a handshake with the president.

HAND GESTURE REVIEWED

GENEVA (AP) — A World Cup video review official said his hand gesture resembling a white supremacist sign was caused by an involuntary twitch, and a FIFA committee concluded the Australian didn’t breach the sport’s disciplinary code.

FIFA’s discrimination monitor had called for Shaun Evans to be removed from the tournament.

Evans worked Germany’s opening 7-1 win over Curaçao on Sunday as an assistant to the video assistant referee, based at the World Cup broadcast center in Dallas. When the official broadcast cut before the game to show the video review officials, Evans made an “OK” symbol with his right hand in front of his right leg.

“I did not intentionally make a hand gesture or symbol to communicate a message, affiliation, game or belief of any kind,” Evans said in a statement released Monday by FIFA. “The only explanation I can offer is that the movement was an involuntary, subconscious twitch and I was unaware I had done it at the time. Images taken later during the match showed that I repeated this movement many times while holding a pen between my fingers.”

In 2019, the gesture — with thumb and forefinger touching in a circle and other fingers outstretched — was designated a hate symbol by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League.

“Advice from our experts is that the gesture used clearly resembles an upside down ‘OK’ hand symbol used as a ‘white power’ symbol in global far-right circles,” said the Fare network, a long-time partner of FIFA and European soccer body UEFA that monitors racist and discriminatory chants, flags and symbols at international games.

“Clearly this official should have no further role to play in this World Cup,” Fare said in its statement, describing the gesture as “neo-Nazi.”

Evans is working at his second World Cup, and it was his first game of this year’s tournament.

PADRES SUSPENDED

ST. LOUIS (AP) — San Diego pitcher Ron Marinaccio has been issued a three-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for hitting Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson shortly before the end of the Padres’ 9-3 victory over the Orioles on Saturday.

Michael Hill, Major League Baseball’s senior vice president for on-field operations, concluded that Marinaccio intentionally hit Henderson with the pitch.

Padres manager Craig Stammen was suspended one game and fined an undisclosed amount in connection with that same play, Hill announced.

While Stammen elected to serve his suspension on Monday night, when San Diego visited St. Louis, Marinaccio chose to appeal. Hill said Marinaccio will be eligible to keep playing until his appeal process is complete.

Marinaccio hit Henderson with the first pitch of an at-bat, which occurred with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and San Diego leading by six.

Marinaccio was ejected, and manager Craig Stammen came out to argue and was tossed, too.