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Fall schedules requested

The Vindicator requests area high school athletic directors to submit 2008 fall varsity sports schedules.

They can be sent by mail to Vindicator sports department, P.O. Box 780, Youngstown, 44501; fax (330-747-6712) or email (sports@vindy.com).

Volleyball classes

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning Valley Volleyball Officials Association is conducting high school officiating classes.

For details call (330) 651-3416 or (330) 793-4286.

Home run challenge is Wednesday

NILES — A home run challenge at Eastwood Field on June 11 will be contested for kids with epilepsy.

Every high school in the Youngstown-Warren area was invited to send hitters to the field for the 5 p.m. challenge.

Admission is $5 and proceeds will help defray the cost of helping children with special needs to attend summer camps.

For details call (330) 565-6238.

Oldtimers to meet Thursday at Kramer

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Baseball Oldtimers Association will meet Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Kramer Field.

At the meeting plans for the annual picnic will be discussed as well as suggestions for next year’s membership dinner.

Softball all stars

BOARDMAN — The Mahoning Valley all-star high school softball games will be played at the Boardman Field of Dreams on Wednesday.

A doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m.

Coaching the Trumbull/Columbiana Counties team will be Joe Sylvester of Warren JFK.

Canfield’s Ronie Haurin will coach the Mahoning County team.

Huddle is July 27

WARREN — The Warren Sports Hall of Fame Coaches Huddle will take place July 27 at DiLucia’s.

Doors open at 6 p.m.; high school football coaches will make their presentations beginning at 7.

Participating schools will be Brookfield, Champion, Girard, Howland, Hubbard, LaBrae, Liberty, Mineral Ridge, Newton Falls, Niles, Warren Harding and Warren JFK.

nation

US softball team rallies past Canada

OKLAHOMA CITY — Crystl Bustos hit a three-run home run and Andrea Duran had the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the sixth inning to help the United States beat Canada 9-5 Saturday in its first exhibition game against an Olympic opponent this year.

The U.S. had trailed only four times in 39 games before pulling out a 10-8 victory against a team of pro softball All-Stars the previous night, and the Canadians became the first team to hold two separate leads against the three-time Olympic gold medalists.

Natasha Watley scored on a Dione Meier’s wild pitch to tie it at 5, and Duran followed with a sacrifice fly to center field to put the U.S. back on top. Bustos then cleared the bases with her 20th home run in 41 games this season. It landed about a dozen rows up in the left-field stands.

Wisconsin wins IRA

CAMDEN, N.J. — Wisconsin took the lead early on and withstood a late charge by defending champion Washington to win the varsity eight heavyweights at the 106th Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships on the Cooper River.

The Badgers covered the 2,000-meter course in 5 minutes, 31.17 seconds, while the Huskies — who had not lost in two years — finished second in 5:32.89.

California was third at 5:39.02, followed by Northeastern, Stanford and Columbia.

Holyfield says home won’t be foreclosed

ATLANTA — Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield denies that his home will be foreclosed, saying “Everything is all right with the house now.”

A legal notice in a small local newspaper Wednesday said Holyfield’s estate will be auctioned to the highest bidder for cash on July 1. The 54,000-square-foot home has 109 rooms, including 17 bathrooms, three kitchens and a bowling alley. The estate is valued at $10 million.

In The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday, Holyfield said he’s not broke — “I’m just not liquid.”

Cedric Benson arrested again

CHICAGO — Cedric Benson’s rocky relationship with the Chicago Bears got murkier Saturday after the running back’s arrest on a drunken driving charge in Austin, Texas, his second arrest in little more than a month.

Bears officials said they would treat the matter seriously. Benson’s attorney said the former Texas star had a few drinks with dinner but didn’t think he was intoxicated, and cooperated with police.

Still, attorney Sam Bassett acknowledged, “He’s probably in trouble with his team for breaking curfew and having anything to drink under the circumstances.”

Krayzelburg retires

McLEAN, Va. — Four-time Olympic gold medalist Lenny Krayzelburg, captain of the U.S. swimming team at the 2004 Athens Games, officially retired.

The 32-year-old Krayzelburg was plagued by injuries, including three surgeries on his left shoulder, though he did try to come back after the Athens Olympics. He never regained the form that made him the world’s dominant backstroker.

world

Alves beats Hughes with flying knee

LONDON — Thiago “Pitbull” Alves stopped former welterweight champion Matt Hughes 62 seconds into the second round, stunning him with a flying knee and then finishing him with a right to the head for a TKO win at UFC 85 on Saturday.

Alves, a 24-year-old Brazilian who used to earn money as a ballroom dance partner for older women, improved his record to 21-4. Hughes, 34, a fighting farmer from Hillsboro, Ill., who has lost three of his last four mixed martial arts fights, fell to 43-7.

Rosberg has top lap

MONTREAL — Nico Rosberg had the fastest lap Saturday in the final free practice before Canadian Grand Prix qualifying.

With warmer temperatures heating up the track and most of the teams working on their fuel strategies for Sunday’s race, the times were slower than Friday.

Rosberg’s Williams clocked 1 minute, 16.355 seconds, a long way off defending race champion Lewis Hamilton’s fast lap of 1:15.732 on the opening day of practice.

Vindicator staff/wire reports