Class B playoffs set

Class B playoffs set

struthers

The Class B baseball playoffs will begin today at Cene Park at 8 p.m. and the Class b playoffs start Tuesday at 6 p.m., also at Cene.

The Astro Falcons meet Baird Brothers today at 6 p.m. to end the regular season, with the playoffs starting immediately after.

At 8 p.m. on diamond #1, Kuboff & Associates meet Accrohealth while on field #2, Baird Brothers take on Toyota Of Warren.

Creekside Fitness and Astro Falcons have first-round byes in the playoffs.

Golovkin stops Macklin in third round

LEDYARD, Conn.

Undefeated German middleweight Gennady Golovkin stopped English challenger Matthew Macklin in the third round Saturday night to successfully defend his WBA and IBO titles.

Golovkin improved to 27-0 with his 24th knockout and 14th in a row, using a left hand to the body to flatten Macklin (29-5) 1:22 into the third. Golovkin dominated the first two rounds, landing several hard combinations.

Golovkin has made five successful title defenses and hasn’t gone the distance in a fight since June 2008 against Amar Amari in an eight-round bout.

Macklin has lost three of his last four fights.

Sharks get Kennedy from Penguins

SAN JOSE, Calif.

The San Jose Sharks acquired pending restricted free agent forward Tyler Kennedy from the Pittsburgh Penguins for a second-round pick in Sunday’s draft.

The trade gives the Sharks depth up front that they were seeking and gives the Penguins a needed high pick after trading their first and second-rounders before the deadline for forward Jarome Iginla and defenseman Douglas Murray.

Pittsburgh acquired San Jose’s pick, 50th overall, in the second round. The Penguins had been slated to make their first pick at No. 77.

The Sharks later traded up two spots in the first round with Detroit to select Swiss defenseman Mirco Mueller 18th overall.

Avs take MacKinnon with top NHL pick

NEWARK, N.J.

When Nathan MacKinnon was a youth, he envisioned getting drafted by the Colorado Avalanche and playing alongside Joe Sakic. Sakic has since retired, so MacKinnon will have to settle for the next best thing - playing for him.

The Avalanche and Sakic, its recently hired executive vice president of hockey operations, selected the 17-year-old MacKinnon with the first overall pick in the 2013 NHL draft at Prudential Center on Sunday.

MacKinnon, who spent the past two years playing for the Halifax Mooseheads in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, is an elite skater.

At Tour, wounded win by soldiering on

AJACCIO, Corsica

Behind Jan Bakelants, the Belgian who rode with guts and guile to win Stage Two at the Tour de France, there were other smaller but no less impressive victories Sunday that don’t get so widely noticed — by the race’s riding wounded.

In other circumstances, logic would prescribe rest, recovery and TLC for the likes of Geraint Thomas, who was among the more badly beaten up of the dozen or so riders who slammed into the tarmac in a vicious high-speed pileup a day earlier in the frenetic end of Stage One.

Red Bulls blank Houston Dynamo, 2-0

HARRISON, N.J.

Fabian Espindola broke a scoreless tie in the 60th minute with his first goal since April 20, and Jonny Steele scored with two minutes left in regulation, giving the New York Red Bulls a 2-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo on Sunday.

The victory was the first for New York (8-6-4) since defeating Los Angeles on May 19. The Red Bulls were 0-2-1 during that span, which included a three-week hiatus. The Red Bulls moved within one point of first-place Montreal in the Eastern Conference.

Vindicator staff/wire reports