Wednesday April 6th Local Sports

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins announced this morning that their opening day game scheduled for Thursday against Seattle has been postponed to Friday due to wintry weather conditions forecast for Minneapolis. Tickets for tomorrow’s game will automatically be transferred to Friday’s rescheduled game, which will still be at 3:10 PM, with the pre-game starting at 2:30 on AM-1300 KGLO.

 

 

IRVING, TEXAS — Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby says he is stepping away from that role later this year after a decade on the job. Bowlsby will remain the Big 12’s leader until a new commissioner is appointed. The expectation is that he will then transition into a new interim role with the league. The 70-year-old Bowlsby’s contract with the Big 12 goes into 2025. He has been the Big 12 commissioner since 2012. He came to the league after serving as athletic director at Stanford, Iowa and Northern Iowa.

 

 

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cleveland State has hired longtime Iowa State assistant Daniyal Robinson as its next men’s basketball coach. It’s the fourth coach in seven years for Cleveland State. Robinson spent seven seasons over two stints with the Cyclones. He will be introduced Wednesday. Robinson replaces Dennis Gates, who turned Cleveland State around in three seasons before leaving to take over Missouri’s floundering program. Robinson worked under Greg McDermott, Steve Prohm and T.J. Otzelberger at Iowa State. Robinson was credited with helping the Cyclones land several top recruits and was regarded as one of the top assistants in the Big 12.

 

 

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kristaps Porzingis scored 25 points, including 12 in the third quarter as Washington took control, and the Wizards pulled away for a 132-114 win against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Karl-Anthony Towns had 26 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota, while D’Angelo Russell finished with 17 points and 11 assists. Minnesota is seventh in the Western Conference, almost out of time to climb above the cut and avoid the play-in tournament with only two regular-season games remaining.

 

 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ryan Johansen’s first career hat trick led the Nashville Predators to a 6-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild. Roman Josi and Philip Tomasino had a goal and two assists, Matt Duchene had a goal and an assist and Juuse Saros made 47 saves for Nashville. Filip Forsberg had three assists and Mattias Ekholm added two. Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov each had a goal and an assist for Minnesota. Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves.

 

 

MASON CITY — After completing their first year as the Mason City Toros, the junior hockey club has signed a new multi-year lease agreement with the City of Mason City and Mason City Youth Hockey. The new lease for the Toros adds to an existing agreement already in place for the North Iowa Bulls and ensures a long-term commitment from both teams to the future of the sport in Mason City. The Toros recently finished their first season under their current identity after the relocation of the NAHL’s Amarillo Bulls last spring and the subsequent rebranding of the NA3HL team that previously played under the Bulls name. This year’s team finished second in the NA3HL West Division, falling just one win short of returning to the Frasier Cup tournament to defend its 2021 championship.

 

 

 

IOWA CITY — When a college baseball team wants to be in the NCAA Tournament, discussion of midweek games carry added importance, and the Iowa Hawkeyes will be in Peoria tonight to play Bradley. It will be one of several non-conference road trips for Rick Heller’s team.

Injuries have forced Heller to juggle his lineups but the Hawks opened Big Ten play by claiming two of three games at Michigan.

Iowa is currently 14-10 overall and after tonight’s game at Bradley will host a three-game Big Ten series against Illinois this weekend.

 

 

 

MASON CITY — NIACC freshman Bennett McCollow has been named the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference’s Division II baseball player of the week for last week. The second baseman from Minneapolis had five home runs and 11 runs batted in in a doubleheader sweep over 5th-ranked Kirkwood on March 30th. NIACC takes a 13-10 record into this afternoon’s trip to Kirkwood.

 

 

 

GALENA, ILLINOIS — The NIACC golf teams played at the Clarke University Invitational on Tuesday in Galena Illinois. The NIACC Men shot a 319 as a team on Tuesday, led by sophomore Kai Nelles who shot at 77. Also for NIACC, Bradley Vaith shot a career-best 79, Jack Barragy shot an 80, Bryce Malchow shot an 83 and Andrew Crane shot an 85. The NIACC women finished second as a team on Tuesday with a 390, 13 shots behind the champion Coe College. Sophomore Hailey Panos led NIACC with a 93, MaKenna Hanson had a 96, Kirsten Boerjan a 97, Alyssa Alert a 104 and Sophie Lunning a 107. Both NIACC teams return to action this weekend at the Iowa Central Invitational in Fort Dodge.

 

 

 

IOWA CITY — Iowa’s Joe Evans is working this spring to become an every-down defensive end. The Ames native began his career as a walk-on and last season appeared in all 14 games and had seven sacks for the Hawkeyes.

With Zach VanValkenburg gone from last year’s team, Evans says a new set of leaders are stepping up.

The defensive line has been a strength of the program and Evans says they want that to continue.

Iowa will conclude spring drills on April 23rd.