SPORTS digest

UIC baseball team defeats Penguins

CHICAGO

Illinois-Chicago scored the first six runs and held off a big threat in the seventh to beat the Youngstown State baseball team 6-2 on Thursday at Curtis Granderson Stadium.

The Flames were dominant on the mound for most of the game, holding the Penguins to just two hits to take the first of three games in the series.

YSU got a one-out single from Drew Dickerson in the second inning, and Web Charles singled and scored in the sixth inning. The Penguins drew six walks in the game, including four straight in the seventh inning as they got the tying run to the plate.

Youngstown State sophomore Blaze Glenn was 0-for-4 and was kept off the bases for the first time since Feb. 23. He had reached base in 46 consecutive games.

Polanco ignites Pirates victory

PITTSBURGH

Gregory Polanco led off the seventh inning with a double and scored the go-ahead run on an error, leading the Pittsburgh Pirates over the San Diego Padres 5-4 Thursday night for their eighth win in nine games.

Polanco took third on Francisco Cervelli’s deep flyball, then came home when rookie third baseman Christian Villanueva misplayed Corey Dickerson’s two-out grounder.

Pittsburgh’s Josh Bell and Sean Rodriguez each had two hits for the NL Central-leading Pirates.

Lightning tie series with Capitals

WASHINGTON

Alex Killorn scored the tiebreaker with about 8 minutes left, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves, and the Tampa Bay Lightning weathered the equivalent of more than a period without a shot on goal to edge the Washington Capitals 4-2 on Thursday night, evening the Eastern Conference final at two games apiece.

Killorn was left pretty much alone during a defensive breakdown by Washington and scored 6 seconds after a Tampa Bay power play expired, putting in a pass from Ondrej Palat.

Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point scored Tampa Bay’s first two goals, and Anthony Cirelli added an empty-netter with a second left.

Washington’s goals came from Evgeny Kuznetsov — off an assist by Alex Ovechkin — and defenseman Dmitry Orlov.

Browns to be featured on ‘Hard Knocks’

CLEVELAND

Ready or not, the Cleveland Browns are getting their close-up.

Coming off a historic, dismal 0-16 season, the Browns have been chosen to appear on HBO’s popular “Hard Knocks” series that gives NFL fans a behind-the-scenes look at training camp.

The Browns have turned down previous opportunities to be on the award-winning series. But with renewed optimism around Cleveland following the recent draft, and the selection of quarterback Baker Mayfield, the team is granting HBO unlimited access to its upcoming camp.

Cleveland is the 13th franchise to participate in “Hard Knocks,” which began in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were featured last summer.

Although they’ve won only one game the past two seasons under coach Hue Jackson, the Browns see the show as a possibility to highlight some of their younger players and put a positive spin on their rebuild.

And for HBO, Mayfield’s quest to win the starting job is just one of several juicy story lines.

HBO’s cameras are certain to focus on Mayfield, the brash Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma the Browns chose over other quarterbacks. Mayfield is expected to back up Tyrod Taylor this season, but their competition could make for the kind compelling TV that has made the series a must-watch for football junkies.

A 30-person film crew will be at the team’s training facility in Berea to record more than 2,000 hours of footage for the five-segment series that will debut Aug. 7.

The Browns have some good young players who are not well known outside Cleveland.

Staff/wire report