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NCS softball playoffs: How California captured its first section title – ‘This was our year to be great’

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:48 GMT

MORAGA – Though gold medals were draped around their necks, the California softball team’s attention wasn’t focused on the hardware they had earned after defeating San Ramon Valley 5-1 in the North Coast Section Division I title game. Instead, they looked and listened to coach Tony Bari, who told the underclassmen to cherish the school’s first section championship. “Freshmen, this doesn’t happen every year,” Bari declared in a postgame speech. Alyssa Villarde, among the many circled around Bari in the Saint Mary’s College outfield, was a senior who appreciated the message. “It means a lot, because all of us seniors started with the COVID year so it was hard from the get-go,” Villarde said. “I’m super-excited, because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We’d never even been this far.”MORAGA – California players Shayla Santolucito (left) and Kaitlyn Le (right) embrace as the San Ramon Valley players watch from the dugout. San Ramon Valley and California played in an NCS...

Oakland A’s struggles: When’s the last time an MLB team has started this poorly?

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:48 GMT

OAKLAND – Oakland A’s right-hander James Kaprielian hasn’t experienced anything like this before. He’s pretty sure none of his teammates have, either.In fact, for well over a century, no player on a Major League team has lost on such a consistent basis as the A’s have this season.Thanks in part to their own miscues and some misfortune, the A’s allowed four runs in the third inning and lost 5-2 to the Houston Astros on Friday before a postgame fireworks-influenced crowd of 13,345 at the Coliseum.At 10-43, the A’s, now on a season-high nine-game losing streak, have the second-worst record of any big-league team since 1900, only ahead of the 1904 Washington Senators, who were 9-41 after 53 games (with three games called with the score tied).“This is a challenge. I mean, this is tough,” said Kaprielian, now 0-5 this season. “I’ve never gone through something like this. I don’t think anyone has. We’re historically losing games r...

Man arrested in connection with SF homicide

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:48 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- A man was arrested on Thursday in connection with an April San Francisco homicide, the San Francisco Police Department said. Anthony Timmons, 23, was taken into custody blocks away from where the homicide was committed. Woman working for Alameda County juvenile center accused of sex acts with teen The killing happened on the 200 block of Golden Gate Avenue at about 1 p.m. on April 1. SFPD responded to the report of a shooting and found a 52-year-old man with gunshot wounds. He later succumbed to his injuries.SFPD's homicide unit identified Timmons as the suspect. He was recognized by an officer in the area of Jones Street and Market Street at about 3 p.m. After a brief pursuit, he was arrested. According to SFPD, a search of Timmons revealed drugs and a loaded gun with an extended magazine.KRON ON is streaming news live now.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, ...

Della Donne lifts Mystics past Sky; Ogunbowale leads Wings over Storm

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:48 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Elena Delle Donne scored 25 points, including a late go-ahead 3-pointer, Shakira Austin had 15 points and 11 rebounds and the Washington Mystics beat the Chicago Sky 71-69 on Friday night.Ariel Atkins rebounded her own miss and found Delle Donne open for a 3 with 22.4 to play. Kahleah Copper drove into the lane and was fouled before making 1 of 2 free throws with 10.4 left to get Chicago within 69-67. But Atkins sealed it by making two free throws for a four-point lead.Natasha Cloud had a team-high seven assists for Washington (2-2), which forced Chicago into 21 turnovers.Marina Mabrey led Chicago (2-1) with 19 points. Courtney Williams had 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists and Copper scored 12.Chicago forward Morgan Bertsch left late in the first half after landing awkwardly following a blocked shot and did not return. Rebekah Gardner also had to be helped off the court with 38.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter.WINGS 95, STORM 91SEATTLE (AP) — Arike Ogunbo...

McCutchen sparks record-tying home run barrage as Pirates sink Mariners 11-6

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:48 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Andrew McCutchen hit the 21st leadoff homer of his career, the first of four home runs off Seattle starter George Kirby, and the Pittsburgh Pirates matched a franchise record with seven long balls on their way to an 11-6 win over the Mariners on Friday night.The seven home runs more than doubled Pittsburgh’s previous high for a game this season (three) and marked the third time since 1901 the Pirates hit seven in a game. They previously did it in 2003 and 1947, both against St. Louis.McCutchen’s towering drive on the second pitch of the game was his eighth of the season and just the beginning for the Pirates. Jack Suwinski had his second multi-homer game of the season, with a two-out, two-run shot to center field off Kirby in the fifth inning and a long solo homer to right in the seventh.Bryan Reynolds finished with four RBIs including a two-run triple, an RBI single and his seventh homer all in his final three at-bats.Carlos Santana, a key piece of Seattle’s playoff ...

Astros send A’s to most losses through 53 games to start season since 1900

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:48 GMT

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Mark Kotsay will keep searching for the small bright spots as his Oakland Athletics stumble day after day, making sure they maintain their fight. He will celebrate a defensive play here, an at-bat there, a big catch or mighty throw.Hunter Brown struck out a career-high 10 over seven innings and retired 16 straight during one stretch, Corey Julks drove in three runs and the Houston Astros bounced back from being shut out the two previous games to beat the A’s 5-2 on Friday night.Oakland (10-43) now has the most losses over the first 53 games since 1900. The 1932 Red Sox won their 53rd game to move to 11-42, then lost the next eight and 13 of 14.“This start can test your character, for sure,” said Kotsay, Oakland’s second-year manager. “If we sit here and dwell on the negatives, there’s no chance for us to turn this thing around. Focusing on the positives through a difficult time, it’s not fake because there are positives. The more we can...

Police: 1 stabbed, another shot in separate Prince George’s Co. homicides

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:48 GMT

Prince George’s County, Maryland, police have started investigating a deadly stabbing and subsequent shooting at two different apartment complexes Friday evening.Officers said the stabbing happened in the 2100 block of Broks Drive at around 6:30 p.m. The victim, an adult male, died while inside an apartment from stab wounds to the upper body.Police didn’t share if there were any suspects or motives behind the stabbing.Over four hours later, at roughly 10:40 p.m., the department responded to reports of a shooting in the 4400 block of Telfair Boulevard.When police arrived, an adult male was found inside an apartment suffering from a gunshot wound. Officials said the person died at the scene of the crime.Detectives ask anyone with information about either incident to contact PG Crime Solvers by calling 1-866-411-TIPS or using the P3 Tips app.A map of the approximate incident locations is included below. Source

Are the anti-Trump Republican forces starting to implode?

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:48 GMT

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Will this go down as the week that the grand plan to deny Donald Trump the nomination fell apart?For months, high-level Republican lawmakers, donors and strategists eager to block Trump have described, in separate conversations with me, an endgame to the presidential primary.When it becomes clear in the early state and national polling who is consolidating support, the most influential figures with ties to the lagging candidates will stage a sort of political intervention and tell them it’s time to quit and rally to the strongest alternative to Trump.Such a plot always struck me as a bit far-fetched, for starters because politicians aren’t known for putting party ahead of self. Yet the appetite among elite Republicans to move past Trump was and is so immense I thought there could at least be a do-the-right-thing effort.Yet as spring turns to summer, traditionally the period when presidential hopefuls consider whether they’re gaining any traction, this v...

Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:48 GMT

It’s as if Pfizer’s massive COVID-19 vaccine deal with the European Commission were written with disappearing ink: the more time passes, the more details seem to vanish.For a while now controversy has raged around the text messages supposedly exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla in the run-up to the April 2021 deal for 1.1 billion doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. The content and even existence of the messages has been shrouded in secrecy, with requests for clarification met with a fat “no comment.”On Friday, the Commission said it had reached a long sought-after deal with Pfizer to revise the terms of the contract. The new deal cuts down the 450 million doses that were still due to be delivered in 2023, and spreads them out over the next four years.That’s all the information you get. The Commission isn’t revealing the new number of doses that member countries must buy, nor any of...

Germany’s slipped into recession and everyone should be worried

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:20:48 GMT

FRANKFURT ― Not so long ago, Germany was Europe’s powerhouse: wealthy, booming, politically strong. But the mighty have fallen.And it’s not hard to see why this is giving the rest of the eurozone a bad case of the jitters. After all, if its largest member is struggling, it risks dragging the whole lot of them down with it.Germany is by far the eurozone’s biggest economy, accounting for almost 30 percent of the bloc’s economic output. It is the largest trading partner of more than half of the EU’s 27 countries. Politically too, that has enabled Berlin to call a lot of the shots within the European Union. But Thursday’s data, which showed that Germany has fallen into recession, didn’t come out of the blue. It was already among the last in Europe to return to pre-COVID levels when economies started to rebound after the pandemic. And it’s that very drawn-out nature of Germany’s malaise — as well as an absence of the surefootedness of...