Local Sports Digest

LOCAL
Baseball Oldtimers
STRUTHERS -- The Youngstown Baseball Oldtimers Association will hold its annual spring dinner at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 344 Center St., in Struthers May 21.
A social hour will begin at 5 p.m. followed by dinner at 6.
There is no charge for each club member and one guest, but a $5 charge for each additional guest.
Reservations are due by Thursday and may be made by calling Don Yurick at (330) 755-1913.
Sharon Speedway
HARTFORD -- Sharon Speedway canceled race events Saturday.
The $50,000 Challenge World of Outlaw Sprint event is on tap for next Saturday.
Lyell wins
TAMPA, Fl. -- Professional boxer Billy Lyell of Niles has yet another impressive victory on his record.
At the A La Carte Pavilion Friday night, Lyell recorded an eight-round unanimous decision over Clarence Taylor of Wilmington, Del.
Lyell (12-2, 2 KOs) defeated Taylor (10-8-2) on all three judge's cards, 80-72, 78-74, 78-74.
Rush 70, Rampage 47
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Matt D'Orazio threw six touchdown passes to help the Chicago Rush wrap up a playoff spot with a 70-47 victory over the Grand Rapids Rampage on Saturday in the final game of the regular season for both teams.
D'Orazio was 18-of-29 for 189 yards, and Bobby Sippio led Chicago (7-9) in receiving with six catches for 74 yards and two touchdowns. Chad Salisbury threw five touchdown passes for the Rampage (5-11).
NATION/WORLD
Dynamo, Dallas tie
FRISCO, Texas -- Clarence Goodson's own goal in the 81st minute allowed the Houston Dynamo to tie FC Dallas 1-1 on Saturday.
The own goal was scored after a header by Houston's Eddie Robinson bounced off Goodson's right shoulder and into the right corner of the FC Dallas net. Carlos Ruiz scored an unassisted goal in the 19th minute to give FC Dallas (4-1-3) a 1-0 lead.
The Dynamo (4-2-1) played most of the game without their two leading scorers, Brian Ching and Dwayne De Rosario. Ching, the MLS leader in goals scored, is with the U.S. national team preparing for the World Cup. De Rosario left the game in the 39th minute with an injury to his right ankle.
Boxing
ZWICKAU, Germany -- Armenia's Arthur Abraham retained the IBF middleweight title Saturday in a rousing 12-round brawl with Kofi Jantuah.
On the same card, Germany's Markus Beyer retained the WBC super middleweight title against Australian Sakio Bika when a head butt stopped the fight.
The fight was ruled a technical draw after Bika's fourth round head butt opened a cut under the German's right eye and it swelled shut.
Around 4,000 spectators gave Abraham, 21-0 with 17 knockouts, a standing ovation after the action-filled fight. He was awarded a 115-112, 116-111, 117-109 decision against Jantuah, who lives in Las Vegas. Jantuah (30-3, 19 knockouts) was staggered numerous times from the fifth round on and looked as if he was going down in the 11th when Abraham buckled his knees with a left, but never stopped pressing the fight.
Bika is now entitled to a rematch against Beyer after his head butt was ruled an accident. The Cameroon-born fighter jarred Beyer with a left, then moved in as the German tried to grab him.
The fight was wide open after two slow rounds gave way to an explosive third.
Bika rattled Beyer with a short left uppercut, then chased him around the ring. The German tagged him with some hard lefts beforehand and recovered to put him into the ropes just before the bell.
Beyer entered the fight 34-2 with 13 knockouts, while Bika was 20-1 with 13 knockouts.
Dad Vail Regatta
PHILADELPHIA -- Top-seeded Marietta College, which won the first-ever Dad Vail Regatta in 1934, won the gold medal in the 68th annual competition Saturday.
Marietta finished with a time of five minutes, 42.06 seconds in the competition, which features more than 3,000 rowers from 118 schools in the United States and Canada.
Second-seeded Temple, which has won 20 of the last 24 competitions, placed second with a time of 5:48.69. Fifth-seeded Colorado had a time of 5:51:07 for the bronze medal.
Saint Joseph's won its first-ever women's crown with a time of six minutes, 40.02 seconds.
USC player killed
LOS ANGELES -- Southern California freshman point guard Ryan Francis was shot and killed early Saturday while riding in a car in Louisiana, where he was visiting his mother.
The 19-year-old Francis was killed about 3:30 a.m. in Baton Rouge, said Tim Tessalone, USC's director of sports information.
Jazz hurting
SALT LAKE CITY -- On the last day of regular NBA play last month, the Utah Jazz reached a break-even record for the season.
Financially, however, they're not even close. The team was more than $10 million in the red, according to owner Larry Miller. And losses for the last two seasons combined approach $25 million, Miller said.
Hockey
RIGA, Latvia -- Hours after landing in Europe, Patrick O'Sullivan scored the go-ahead goal and the United States held off Latvia 4-2 to clinch a quarterfinal berth in the world ice hockey championships on Saturday.
The Americans, coming off a 4-0 loss to Finland the night before, followed fellow Group E leaders Canada, Finland and the Czech Republic into the quarterfinals. Latvia and Norway were eliminated from contention. In Group F, Belarus routed Ukraine 9-1 to close in on a spot in the last eight. Belarus was led by Mikhail Grabovsky's hat trick.
Only Russia in Group F has qualified for the quarters, leaving Olympic champion Sweden, Switzerland and Belarus favored to clinch the last berths. Slovakia and Ukraine still had hope.
The United States advanced to the quarterfinals for the second year in a row. It has missed out only twice since 1998, when the 16-team format was started.
Flutie to announcedecision within a week
BOSTON -- Doug Flutie has a pretty good idea of whether he'll retire and expects to announce his decision within a week.
Flutie said Saturday he has spoken regularly with New England coach Bill Belichick and wants to consider all his options -- including offers to go into broadcasting -- before making an announcement.
Vindicator staff/wire reports