Sports briefs

ysu

Baseball twinbill

NILES — The Youngstown State baseball team will finally have a home stand this weekend when it entertains Horizon League opponent Butler at Eastwood Field.

The Penguins, who have played 23 of their first 24 games on the road this year, will host the Bulldogs in a doubleheader today beginning at 2 p.m. and a single game on Sunday beginning at noon.

Today’s doubleheader was originally slated for noon, but moved back because of rain forecast for early morning.

area

Bocce champs

YOUNGSTOWN — St. Anthony’s defeated Antonelli Construction 15-1, 15-9 to win the championship of the St. Anthony’s Bocce League.

Members of the winning team are Vince Genova, Tony Iamurri, Dave Donatelli, Jerry Scavnicky, Tom George, Tony Quattro, Fred Huyghe and Bumpy Smrek.

Pavlik banquet

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Lake Erie Association of USA Amateur Boxing will have a banquet for middleweight boxing champ Kelly Pavlik on April 29.

The 6 p.m. event will be held at Sterle’s Restaurant on 55th Street.

For details call (216) 721-1674.

Umpire clinic

BOARDMAN — A N.S.A. softball umpire clinic will be held at the Field of Dreams on Sunday at 1 p.m.

For details call (330) 770-3966.

Durbin goes to Mount

ALLIANCE — Youngstown Christian High School senior Patrick Durbin has committed to attend Mount Union College and compete on the football team.

Durbin was a wide receiver who was an All-Ohio, All-Northeast Ohio, and all-conference.

As a senior he had 700 receiving yards and caught 13 touchdowns.

nation

Ashland Stakes

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Joe Parker’s path to training a filly in a major Kentucky horse race couldn’t have taken a less predictable course, both professionally and geographically.

A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Parker left for the United States as a young adult in 1972, hoping to strike it rich as a professional soccer player. Failing at that, he tried his luck at a Wall Street brokerage firm, which suited him even less.

“I didn’t want to be on the streets,” Parker said. “So I went to a racetrack and fell in love with the game.”

Landis comeback

CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. — Floyd Landis will compete in a cycling race in upstate New York as part of his comeback from a two-year ban for using performance-enhancing drugs.

Landis, who will ride for the California-based OUCH cycling team, will compete in the Battenkill Professional Invitational on April 19 in Cambridge, N.Y.

Landis forfeited his 2006 Tour de France victory after testing positive for synthetic testosterone. His two-year ban ended earlier this year, and he competed in last month’s Tour of California. He finished 23rd overall.

Safety inspection

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Churchill Downs will be inspected next week by national racing officials as it seeks to become the first racetrack in North America accredited for safety.

Inspectors from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association will visit the Louisville track Monday. The Safety and Integrity Alliance is an accreditation group that established a process in October in response to calls for tracks to beef up safety for horses and jockeys.

world

British woman sets record-long dive

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A 37-year-old British woman has set a new world record in free-diving with a 314-foot ocean plunge on a single breath.

Sara Campbell completed the dive in three minutes, 34 seconds in the Vertical Blue competition off Long Island in the Bahamas.

Campbell was competing in the constant weight discipline, which requires athletes to descend and surface using only the power of their body and a large fin attached to their feet.

The record was certified by Grant Graves, a judge from the International Association for the Development of Apnea.

Aguirre rehired

MEXICO CITY — Mexico has rehired Javier Aguirre as its soccer coach a day after the dismissal of Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Aguirre is a former coach of Atletico Madrid and this is his second stint with the Mexican team. He inherits a squad that is fourth in the six-team regional Only the top three automatically qualify for next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

Vindicator staff/wire reports