SPORTS digest

Eastern Gateway adds women’s volleyball

YOUNGSTOWN

Eastern Gateway Community College will field a women’s volleyball team in 2020. It is the school’s second sports team after the baseball team debuted in 2018.

Former Youngstown State volleyball coach Joe Conroy will be the programs’ head coach. Conroy went 188-204 from 1992 through 2004 with the Penguins. He is YSU’s winningest coach and had four 20-plus win seasons.

Spikes error sends Scrappers to victory

Niles

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers took advantage of a throwing error, and beat the State College Spikes 5-4 Wednesday night at Eastwood Field.

Jeremy Randolph threw the ball away on a pick-off attempt to first base, allowing Michael Cooper to score the eventual winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Carlos Vargas (5-4) allowed one run on six hits and a walk. He struck out six in 52/3 innings for the Scrappers (35-35). Jerson Ramirez pitched a perfect ninth for his sixth save.

Junior Gonzalez (3-6) allowed three runs — two earned — on three hits and five walks for the Spikes (36-35). He struck out three in 42/3 innings.

State College and Mahoing Valley will play the second game of their series today. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Youngstown Baseball Old Timers to meet

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Baseball Old Timers will meet at 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 at Kramer Field on Bears Den Road.

Members are urged to attend. Call Nick at 757-287-1127 or Dan at 330-540-8751 for more information.

Minor Leaguer’s family victim of triple slaying

CHATHAM, Va.

The brother-in-law of a minor league baseball pitcher killed the athlete’s wife, toddler son and mother-in-law before he was captured naked during a manhunt in a tiny southern Virginia community, authorities said Wednesday.

Matthew Thomas Bernard, an 18-year-old relative of the victims, was arrested after police warned of a dangerous gunman on the loose upon finding the bodies Tuesday morning at a home in Keeling.

Bernard’s sister, one of the victims, was married to Blake Bivens, a 24-year-old pitcher for Alabama’s Montgomery Biscuits, a Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.

News of the slayings had prompted the Biscuits to cancel its scheduled doubleheader Tuesday.

Pittsylvania County Sheriff Michael Taylor identified the dead as Bernard’s mother, 62-year-old Joan Bernard; his sister, 25-year-old Emily Bivens; and his nephew, 14-month-old Cullen Bivens.

Hockey players announce tournaments

Kendall Coyne Schofield and a majority of the world’s top female hockey players are set to hit the ice in their ongoing push to establish a single, economically viable North American professional league.

The newly formed Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association announced Wednesday it will hold a series of tournaments starting in Toronto on Sept. 20-22. Two more events are also scheduled for Hudson, New Hampshire, on Oct. 4-6 and Chicago on Oct. 18-20.

The union also announced its members will play exhibition games against Boston College on Sept. 21 and against the Sharks alumni in San Jose on Sept. 22.

The tournaments are being billed as “The Dream Gap Tour,” which represents the gap girls have in their dreams of one day play professionally.

As Coyne Schofield told The Associated Press, her only options growing up ended at playing college or potentially the Olympics, where the two-time Olympian helped the United States win a gold medal last year.

The union is made up of players who have pledged not to compete professionally in North America this season in a bid to form a league that pays them a livable wage and provides health care.

Staff/wire reports