SPORTS digest

Early hole too much for Scrappers

NILES

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers managed to make a game of Thursday’s contest against the State College Spikes in the ninth inning, but it was too little, too late. The Scrappers lost, 8-6.

Trailing 8-2 in the ninth inning, second baseman Jorma Rodriguez hit a two-run homer and Mitch Longo hit a two-run double to cut the deficit to two runs with two outs. Gavin Collins popped out to end the rally.

They host the Spikes tonight at 7:05.

NASCAR cancels Sprint Cup qualifier

DARLINGTON, S.C.

NASCAR has postponed all track activity for today and canceled qualifying for its Sprint Cup and Xfinity races at Darlington Raceway in anticipation of Hermine bringing inclement weather to the South Carolina track.

Hermine strengthened into a hurricane Thursday.

Both the Sprint Cup Series and the Xfinity Series had scheduled practices today and were supposed to qualify Saturday. However, in the revamped weekend schedule, both series will line up the field based on points in the standings.

Kevin Harvick will lead the Sprint Cup field from the pole position with Brad Keselowski second, then defending Darlington champion Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch and Joey Logano in Sunday night’s race.

The Xfinity Series race is scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

Penn State plans to honor Paterno

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.

Penn State’s athletic department on Thursday announced plans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Joe Paterno’s first game as coach, a move that sparked backlash on social networks by people critical of Paterno’s role in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

The university announced plans Thursday to mark the anniversary when the Nittany Lions football team hosts Temple on Sept. 17.

University spokesman Jeff Nelson told The Associated Press that Penn State plans to announce specifics of the commemoration to ticket holders during the week of the game. He declined further comment on the plans.

Paterno coached at Penn State for 46 seasons, becoming college football’s winningest coach. But the coach was fired by the school’s board of trustees shortly after Sandusky, who was his defensive coordinator, was arrested in November 2011 for child sexual abuse. Paterno died in January 2012 of lung cancer.

Criminal case opened against Beckenbauer

ZURICH

Swiss federal prosecutors say they have opened criminal proceedings against Franz Beckenbauer and three other German members of the 2006 World Cup organizing committee for financial wrongdoing.

Switzerland’s attorney general’s office says the four are suspected of fraud, money laundering, criminal mismanagement and misappropriation relating to a payment of 6.7 million euros ($7.3 million) linked to FIFA.

Swiss prosecutors say evidence was collected Thursday at “eight separate locations” in Germany and Austria.

Three suspects are past or current members of the FIFA executive committee: Beckenbauer, Theo Zwanziger and Wolfgang Niersbach.

Niersbach, whose term expires in 2019, has been banned for one year by the FIFA ethics committee for not reporting suspected wrongdoing.

The fourth suspect is Horst Schmidt, vice president of the 2006 organizing committee.

O’Reilly retires from Team USA

U.S. women’s national team midfielder Heather O’Reilly has announced her retirement from international soccer after a 15-year run with the team.

O’Reilly will play her final international match on Sept. 15 against Thailand in Columbus.

Staff/wire report