Area sports in brief
local
Time change
AUSTINTOWN — Field events for Friday’s Division I district track and field meet at Fitch High will begin at 4 p.m., followed by running finals at 4:30. This is a change from the original schedule.
Gandy earns honor
WITTENBERG — Tim’ara Gandy, graduate of Ursuline High School, placed first in the 4x100 relay, earning her All-NCAC honors for Wittenberg University’s track and field team this spring.
St. Pat’s scramble
HUBBARD — St. Patrick School will be holding its 9th annual Scramble for Education on May 23 at Pine Lakes Golf Course.
Entry fee for the four-person scramble is $75 per person or $300 per team. Golf, lunch, cart, prizes, beverages and dinner are provided.
The grand hole-in-one prize is a 2009 automobile provided by Greenwood Chevrolet.
Each participating golfer will also receive a free weekday round of golf at Pine Lakes. Registration is noon. For more, call Chris (330) 448-6485.
3 Tomcats join squad
ALLIANCE — Senior pitcher Josh Tedesco, an Ursuline High graduate, was one of three Thiel players to land a berth on the American Baseball Coaches Association All-Mideast Region’s baseball team.
Senior OF Eric Boylan and junior 1B Justin Scarpitti earned spots on the second team, while Tedesco was a third team selection.
Tedesco carved out his place in the record books this season by becoming the winningest pitcher in Thiel history and tossing the final nine of his program-best 23 victories.
An all-region first-team selection in 2008, the left-hander registered an ERA of 4.26 while pitching four complete games. He also struck out over five batters for every nine innings pitched, while holding opponents to a .254 average.
Izzo is all-region
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. - Westminster senior John Izzo (Union) was also named to the ABCA All-Mideast Region Team.
Izzo, a first baseman who earned a spot on the third team, became the first Titan since 2005 to earn ABCA all-region honors.
Izzo batted a personal-best .415 (56-135) in 2009 and ranked fifth in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) with 56 hits, sixth in slugging percentage (.637) and total bases (86), and seventh in on-base percentage (.497) and home runs (6). Izzo, a first-team all-PAC selection, also finished the season on a 28-game hit streak.
In the field, Izzo led the PAC with 298 putouts and 35 double plays while maintaining a .987 fielding percentage.
Westminster’s career leader in six statistical categories, Izzo’s school records includes career hits (185), home runs (26) and RBI (124).
REGION
Steelers’ Harrison won’t back down
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison can’t believe there’s so much fuss being made about him skipping the Super Bowl champions’ White House visit with President Barack Obama on Thursday.
Harrison will bypass the traditional ceremony, just as he did when the Steelers were honored by President George W. Bush at the White House in June 2006.
“Why is it a big issue now that I’m not going if it wasn’t a big issue the last time?” Harrison said Tuesday after an offseason practice.
Harrison was a backup when the Steelers won the Super Bowl during the 2005 season, but was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year last season.
NATION
NFL extends deals with CBS, FOX
NEW YORK — The National Football League has extended its deals with broadcast partners CBS and FOX through the 2014 season.
The separate two-year extensions Tuesday give CBS, which televises AFC games, the rights to broadcast the Super Bowl after the 2013 season. The site for Super Bowl XLVII will be announced later Tuesday.
Fox will continue to televise NFC games and was awarded the rights to air the Super Bowl after the 2014 season.
The NFL also reached a deal Tuesday with Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable TV operator, to air the NFL Network on its second-most popular digital tier of service.
Vindicator staff/wire reports