Scrappers-Spikes postponed on Saturday

June 28, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

niles

Saturday’s Mahoning Valley Scrappers game vs. the State College Spikes was postponed due to unplayabe weather conditions.

It will be made up as a doubleheader on Aug. 30.

Canfield’s Griswold to play soccer in France

Katie Griswold of Canfield plans to sign with F.C. Rouen of the Feminine Division 2 soccer league in Rouen, France in August.

She has played soccer at Cardinal Mooney High School, Butler University and professionally for Dinamo Maksmir in Croatia.

Griswold finished her first professional season in Croatia with 12 regular-season goals, helping her team to a third place finish.

US-China soccer match draws 5.7M viewers

VANCOUVER, BC

The Women’s World Cup quarterfinal match between the United States and China drew 5.7 million viewers on Fox, the network says.

The second-ranked U.S. women beat China 1-0 on Friday night to advance to a semifinal match against top-ranked Germany on Tuesday night. The audience for the match was a soccer record for FOX, surpassing the 5 million viewers who watched the United States play Nigeria in the group stage, according to Nielsen’s fast national report.

The U.S. victory over China is the third-most watched women’s soccer match ever, trailing the U.S. victory over China in the 1999 World Cup final at the Rose Bowl (17,975,000) and the 2011 World Cup final between the United States and Japan (13,458,000).

Rahal survives pack racing for second win

FONTANA, Calif.

Graham Rahal held onto the lead out of a caution with three laps left to earn his second IndyCar win, closing out a wild, record-setting day at Auto Club Speedway on Saturday.

A sparse crowd showed up to Auto Club Speedway, but the few fans got to see quite a show as cars sling-shotted past each other at an average of 205 mph and raced up to five-wide around the 2-mile oval.

The 500-mile race eclipsed the season high for lead changes — 37 at Indianapolis — by the midpoint and had 80 overall, topping the IndyCar record of 73 set at Auto Club Speedway in 2001.

Rahal went in front late and stayed there after a late red flag, winning under caution after Ryan Briscoe went airborne in a collision with Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Allmendinger wins pole for road course

SONOMA, Calif.

AJ Allmendinger has won the pole for Sunday’s road course race at Sonoma Raceway.

Allmendinger earned the top starting spot during Saturday’s knockout qualifying with a lap 96.310 mph around the 10-turn, 1.99-mile course. It’s the first pole for JTG Daugherty Racing, which earned its first berth in NASCAR’s championship race last year when Allmendinger won on the Watkins Glen road course.

Kurt Busch will start second, followed by Matt Kenseth, Kyle Larson and five-time Sonoma winner Jeff Gordon. Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, Casey Mears, David Ragan and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

Former coach Henson starting chemotherapy

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.

Former Illinois and New Mexico State basketball coach Lou Henson has been released from a Texas hospital and is scheduled to soon begin chemotherapy treatments.

Henson’s wife, Mary, told The News-Gazette in Champaign that the 83-year-old retired coach is staying with family in Houston. He’ll begin regular chemotherapy treatments before a planned return to his home in Champaign, Illinois, on July 12. The treatments will continue from there.

Henson left Champaign June 21 for M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to determine why his immune system has weakened. Henson has dealt with both non-Hodgkins lymphoma and encephalitis over the past 12 years.

Staff/wire reports