Digest: Oklahoma defeats Auburn for its 3rd national softball title
College softball: Paige Parker pitched a complete game to help Oklahoma defeat Auburn 2-1 on Wednesday night in Oklahoma City for its third national softball title.
Parker put the Tigers down in order in the seventh to improve to 5-0 at the Women’s College World Series.
Auburn’s Emily Carosone, the star of Tuesday’s comeback win with a grand slam in the eighth, couldn’t follow it up.
In the bottom of the first, she committed an error on a grounder by Shay Knighten, and Caleigh Clifton scored for the Sooners (57-8) when Carosone lost control of a throw to first. Knighten then scored on a slow-bouncing infield single by Fale Aviu to make it 2-0.
Auburn (58-12) loaded the bases with no outs in the third, but Parker struck out Carosone, then the Sooners turned a double play to get out of the inning unscathed.
Jade Rhodes’ solo shot in the top of the fourth made it 2-1, but Parker regained control.
Denver’s Miller rejects $114.5 million offer
NFL: Super Bowl MVP Von Miller’s camp has rejected a contract proposal that would have made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of negotiations, said Miller’s representatives rejected a six-year, $114.5 million offer that included $39.8 million in guarantees in the first two years.
Joby Branion, who represents Miller, didn’t immediately return a message left by The AP seeking comment on the rejected offer, which was first reported by ESPN.
Although the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement gives teams until July 15 to work out long-term contract extensions with franchised players, Broncos general manager John Elway imposed a Tuesday night cutoff because he wanted Miller to attend this week’s mandatory minicamp and not miss the entire offseason program.
Elway could revisit Miller’s contract, but he’s turning his attention toward negotiations with wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders and inside linebacker Brandon Marshall.
Rams to keep Bailey around team: Although the Los Angeles Rams have waived Stedman Bailey, they intend to keep the receiver around the team this season while he continues to recover from his gunshot wounds. Bailey will be placed on the Rams’ reserve non-football injury list after clearing waivers, coach Jeff Fisher said Wednesday.
Bailey was shot last November while sitting in a car back home in Miami with his cousin and two children. He survived and underwent numerous medical procedures, but hasn’t been cleared to resume a football career.
Davis to be sidelined: New York Jets TE Kellen Davis is expected to be sidelined until training camp next month after having surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb. Davis, the Jets’ primary starter at tight end last season, was hurt last week during organized team activities.
Court denies Solo’s bid to throw out case
Soccer: Hope Solo, the record-setting goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s soccer team, has lost her bid to have a two-year domestic violence case thrown out of court, setting the stage for a trial in Washington state, according to Seattle TV station KOMO. No trial date has been set and Solo can appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
The U.S. women’s team, and Solo, are scheduled to defend their Olympic soccer title in August in Brazil.
Solo, 33, allegedly assaulted her nephew and half-sister in 2014 and was charged with two counts of fourth-degree domestic violence. The case was dismissed on procedural grounds in January 2015 after prosecution witnesses ignored a court order and refused to be interviewed by defense attorneys.
Coutinho, Brazil routs Haiti: Philippe Coutinho scored his first international hat trick, Renato Augusto had two goals and Brazil routed Haiti 7-1 in the Copa America.
Coutinho scored in the 14th and 29th minutes to build a 2-0 lead, then added a goal on a 20-yard drive in the second minute of second-half stoppage time. The Liverpool midfielder’s only previous goal for Brazil was against Mexico in an exhibition on June 7 last year.
Meesseman lifts Mystics over Wings
WNBA: Emma Meesseman scored a season-high 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Washington Mystics past the Dallas Wings 87-79 in Arlington, Texas.
Meesseman was 10 of 13 from the field and had her third double-double of the season. She had three all of last year. Tayler Hill made 8 of 11 free throws and finished with 14 points for Washington (4-6).
Johnson returns: Glory Johnson has returned to the WNBA after nearly 22 months away following her season-opening, seven-game suspension over a domestic incident last year with Phoenix star Brittney Griner.
Johnson entered early in the first quarter of the Dallas Wings’ home game against Washington on Wednesday night.
While away from the league, Johnson was arrested along with Griner in a domestic incident, got married and separated within a month, gave birth to twin girls who were so critically premature they were almost too young to live and moved with the franchise from Oklahoma to Texas.
Rain stops Federer
at Mercedes Cup
Tennis: Roger Federer was a break up in the first set against Taylor Fitz when rain set in for the evening, ending his comeback after seven games at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany.
The break put top-seeded Federer 4-3 up against the American teenager, whose big serve deserted him in that seventh game. But steady rain then forced organizers to abandon play for the day.
Federer is returning from a back injury that forced him to miss the French Open. The Stuttgart event is a tune-up for Wimbledon, where Federer is a seven-time champion.
Wozniacki falls to Kontaveit: Caroline Wozniacki lost in her second match since coming back from injury, falling to Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-5 at the Nottingham (England) Open.
Also, Alison Riske of the United States beat Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan 6-2, 6-4, and fourth-seeded Monica Puig of Puerto Rico defeated Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal 6-4, 6-0.
Some look to profit from free Ali services
Miscellany: Muhammad Ali, who long ago began crafting the plan for his final tribute, insisted the tickets for his memorial service be free. But after the tickets were handed out, some people looked to make a profit.
People started arriving outside the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky, late Tuesday, hours ahead of the ticket distribution. The line stretched around the arena. Thousands of tickets for Ali’s memorial service Friday were claimed on a first-come, first-served basis in about an hour.
When told of the enormous line, Ali’s wife, Lonnie, laughed and said, “Muhammad is directing all of this, and he’s enjoying every minute of it,” Ali family spokesman Bob Gunnell said.
Many fans of the boxing great flashed smiles, chanted Ali’s name, and some danced, upon getting their four-ticket allotments to be part of history. Thousands of others left empty-handed.
Given the supply-and-demand factor for about 15,000 seats in the arena, some ticket holders immediately looked to cash in, going online offering to sell theirs to the star-studded event. Former President Bill Clinton, a longtime Ali friend, will eulogize the champ, who died last Friday at 74 following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Gunnell denounced the profiteering as a “despicable act” that’s illegal. He warned that officials were monitoring the online advertisements. Ticket scalping in Kentucky, defined as selling a ticket for more than its face value, is a violation, punishable by a fine of up to $250.
Aru wins: Fabio Aru won the third stage of the Criterium du Dauphine Libere in Tournon-sur-Rhone, France.The Italian climber pulled clear 22 kilometers (13.5 miles) from the end to clinch his first stage win at the race.
He raised both arms in the air after finishing the 187.5-kilometer (116-mile) route through the Rhone valley two seconds ahead of a chasing group, led by Norwegian sprinter Alexander Kristoff.
Russia demands Olympic retests thrown out: Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko wants all retested doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics to be thrown out because of alleged flaws in the reanalysis process.
“A laboratory which falsely declared a positive test result must be stripped of its accreditation and all the samples it tested must be declared invalid,” Mutko told Russia’s Tass news agency.
The IOC has reported 55 positive findings in retesting of stored samples from the 2008 Beijing Games and 2012 London Olympics. The Russian Olympic Committee has said 22 of the cases involved Russian athletes, including medalists.
Russian officials said two of the athletes were cleared when their “B” samples tested negative, contradicting the positive “A” samples.
Mutko said those two cases were enough justification for the entire retesting program to be scrapped.
Russian state sports channel Match TV previously reported that 10 Russian medalists had tested positive in retests from Beijing alone. One of those athletes, bronze medal-winning race walker Denis Nizhegorodov, was later reported as having a negative “B” sample, along with rower Alexander Kornilov.
The IOC has been retesting samples at the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland. The tests are targeted on athletes hoping to compete at the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.