Falcons placed in Louisville regional

5/28/2013

BOWLING GREEN — The Bowling Green State University baseball team will play in the Louisville regional of the NCAA tournament, facing the host school at 6 p.m. Friday in the first round.

The Falcons and 15th-seeded Cardinals are joined in their regional by Oklahoma State and Miami (Fla.), which will play each other at 2 p.m. Friday.

Should BG beat Louisville, it will face the Oklahoma State-Miami winner at 5 p.m. Saturday. If the Falcons lose Friday, they will play the OSU-Miami loser at noon Saturday in an elimination contest.

The regional is a double-elimination tournament that likely will determine a winner Sunday. That winner will advance to a super regional.

The super regional will be a best-of-three head-to-head competition, with the Louisville regional winner facing the winner of a regional hosted by Vanderbilt that also includes East Tennessee State, Illinois, and Georgia Tech.

The Falcons (24-29) earned their first NCAA tournament bid since 1999 by winning the Mid-American Conference tournament title over the weekend.

Prep basketball

Bruce Smith, who retired from his position as boys head basketball coach at Whitmer High School following the 2012-13 season, is set to succeed Marc Jump as Southview's next boys coach.

Southview athletic director Susan Felver confirmed Monday that Smith was offered the postition, and that Smith has accepted that offer.

The hiring is subject to the approval of the Sylvania school board.

While at Whitmer, Smith guided the Panthers to a Division I state runner-up finish in 2012, and to a trip to the state semifinals in 2008.

He is also retiring from his teaching position with Washington Local Schools at the conclusion of this school year.

College lacrosse

PHILADELPHIA — Duke rallied from an early deficit to beat Syracuse 16-10 and win its second NCAA men's lacrosse title.

The Blue Devils trailed 5-0 in the second quarter.

Jordan Wolf had four goals for Duke (16-5). Josh Offit and Josh Dionne each scored three times.

Dylan Donahue led Syracuse (16-4) with three goals.

Tennis

PARIS — In Rafael Nadal's return to Grand Slam action after missing seven months with knee trouble, the star restored order by coming back to beat a faltering Daniel Brands 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-3.

There was no such struggle for the tournament's other defending champion, Maria Sharapova, who needed all of 54 minutes to overpower 42nd-ranked Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan 6-2, 6-1. Or for 2011 women's titlist Li Na, a 6-3, 6-4 winner against Anabel Medina Garrigues. Or for 2010 champion Francesca Schiavone, who also won in straight sets.

No. 4-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, last year's runner-up at Wimbledon, kept pace with her younger sister Urszula — producer of a three-set victory over Venus Williams a night earlier — by eliminating Shahar Peer 6-1, 6-1.

Two U.S. men won to set up a meeting for a spot in the third round: John Isner and Ryan Harrison.

In other Day 2 action, French wild-card recipient Gael Monfils surprised No. 5 Tomas Berdych 7-6 (8), 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-7 (4), 7-5, while Australia's Nick Kyrgios, at 18 the youngest player, made a successful debut by eliminating 34-year-old Radek Stepanek 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8), 7-6 (11).

Soccer

SAO PAULO — Brazilian striker Neymar is officially a Barcelona player.

Neymar signed a five-year contract with the Spanish powerhouse, two days after announcing he decided to join the Catalan club instead of Real Madrid.

The financial details of the transfer were not released.