Sports digest

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Prejsnar selected

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. — The Presidents’ Athletic Conference named Westminster College freshman baseball player Justin Prejsnar (New Castle High) the PAC Pitcher of the Week.

Prejsnar fired a complete-game, two-hit shutout in Westminster’s 2-0 PAC victory at Grove City on Saturday.

Prejsnar went all seven innings with one walk and eight strikeouts.

Prejsnar (2-0) has a 2.08 earned-run average in two starts, three appearances and 17.1 innings of work with five walks and 13 strikeouts.

Two titans honored

AUSTINTOWN — Mount Union College juniors Judd Lutz and Aubrey Loy have each been named Ohio Athletic Conference Men’s and Women’s Field Athletes of the Week.

Lutz provisionally qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships and finished first in both the shot put (53-0.75) and discus (158-0), while Loy won the triple jump (35-7.25) and the long jump (17-5.25) and also placed third in the 100 meter dash (13.41) at last weekend’s Muskingum Invitational.

Slaybaugh picked

AUSTINTOWN — Mount Union College senior first baseman Cory Slaybaugh was named Ohio Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week.

In three games last week, Slaybaugh drove in eight runs, had a pair of home runs as he went 8-for-13 (.615) at the plate.

state

Browns sign Patten

CLEVELAND — Wide receiver David Patten has rejoined the Cleveland Browns, signing a free-agent deal with his former team.

Patten, who played for the Browns in 2000, spent the past two seasons with New Orleans.

The signing Monday of the 34-year-old Patten gives the Browns a veteran presence, and he could be insurance pending toxicology reports on wide receiver Donte Stallworth, who struck and killed a pedestrian with his Bentley in Miami Beach on March 14.

Patten has also played for the New York Giants, New England, and Washington.

nation

NCAA ratings up

NEW YORK — Television ratings for the first and second round of the NCAA tournament are up 6 percent from last year.

Overnight ratings released Monday show CBS earned a 5.4 rating and 12 share, up from a 5.1 rating and 12 share for the first two rounds in 2008.

On Sunday, the overnight rating was up 10 percent from 2008. The final group of games, including a tight contest between top-seed Louisville and surprise Siena, earned an 8.1 overnight rating and 14 share, the highest rating for the 5-7:45 p.m. EDT slot since an 8.2 in 2006.

A rating is the percentage of all homes with televisions watching a program.

World Cup soccer

MIAMI SHORES, Fla. — Back from Europe and Major League Soccer openers, U.S. soccer players gathered Monday to prepare for this weekend’s World Cup qualifier at El Salvador.

Fifteen of the 22 players on the roster took the field for a brief workout. Six more were due in later Monday, with Danny Califf expected to arrive from Denmark on Tuesday.

“Today it was about regeneration,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “Of the 15 guys that are here today, I think 10 or 11 played 90 minutes on the weekend, and that’s obviously a great thing for us. It’s important with the amount of time a lot of those guys have played lately to understand what our week needs to be like, and with some of the guys who haven’t played as much we push them a little harder.”

Dix, agent in battle

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Olympic medalist sprinter Walter Dix is trying to end his contract with his agent.

The runner’s lawyer, Jason Wolf, said Monday that agent Kimberly Holland and ICON Management have locked the sprinter into an unfair contract and won’t let him out.

Dix claims the Atlanta-based agency has failed to obtain endorsements and appearances for him as promised.

ICON contends Dix has tried to enter meets using his brother, Washington Dix, as representation — a claim the sprinter denies. Walter Dix’s contract expires Dec. 23 and the dispute is in arbitration.

world

Lithuania seeks help

ZURICH — An agency created to monitor suspicious gambling patterns and possible match-fixing in world soccer said Monday it has signed its first deal to work with a national association.

Lithuanian soccer officials have asked Early Warning System for its help and information from a network of 400 worldwide betting operators to track betting patterns when the national league kicks off play next month.

“In Lithuania they think there can be a danger in their own league and wanted to know more about sports betting,” said Wolfgang Feldner, head of strategy at the Zurich-based EWS.

Vindicator staff/wire reports