SPORTS digest

NCAA hoops official to speak to Curbstone

BEAVER TOWNSHIP

Joe DeRosa, a veteran NCAA basketball official, will speak at today’s Curbstone Coaches noon luncheon at Avion Banquet Center.

The public is welcome to attend.

YSU softball team receives third seed

Indianapolis

The Youngstown State softball team garnered the No. 3 seed in the 2019 Horizon League Softball Championship that will be contested Wednesday through Saturday.

No.1 seed UIC will host the event in Chicago.

The Penguins finished Horizon League play 13-9 after sweeping Green Bay over the weekend. Youngstown State will face No. 6 seed Oakland (9-14) on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.

The Penguins swept the season series from Oakland (scores of 4-2, 8-4 and 14-9).

Blues blast Stars to force Game 7

DALLAS

Jaden Schwartz and Sammy Blais scored in a 33-second span of the third period for St. Louis that knocked Dallas goaltender Ben Bishop out of the game, and the Blues beat the Stars 4-1 on Sunday to force Game 7 in the second-round Western Conference semifinal series.

Schwartz scored to make it 3-1 with 13:23 left when he redirected Alexander Steen’s shot. Steen had gathered the puck outside the right circle after Colton Parayko’s shot deflected off Bishop’s left shoulder and knocked the stunned goalie to the ice.

Bishop was tended to by a trainer and initially stayed in the game, but a switch was made soon after when Blais, playing his first postseason game, got a slap shot past him.

Alex Pietrangelo, their captain, scored only 63 seconds into the game and David Perron also had a goal for the Blues, who will be on home ice for the deciding game Tuesday night.

Rain postpones NASCAR race

DOVER, Del.

Jimmie Johnson posed for a photo with Hall of Famers Bobby Allison and Richard Petty from an appearance this weekend and wrote the caption “367 and counting.”

His combined win total has been stuck on that number since June 4, 2017, when Johnson won the last of his 83 NASCAR Cup races.

Mired in the worst slump of his career, the seven-time NASCAR champion was back at his favorite track on Sunday, his 11 wins at Dover International Speedway a record.

He has to wait another day to go for No. 12 and end his slump.

NASCAR will race today at noon after rain fell on the mile concrete track all day and the only action came from a Charlie Daniels Band concert. If the devil went down to Delaware, he would have needed a poncho.

NASCAR tried to start the race but pulled the cars from the track after a handful of pace laps once the rain came again.

Homa’s closing 67 delivers PGA win

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Two years after Max Homa played only one Sunday in an entire PGA Tour season, he showed his mettle at Quail Hollow by closing with a 4-under 67 to pull away from the field and win the Wells Fargo Championship.

Homa began the back nine with two birdies to build a four-shot lead and didn’t make any mistakes until it only affected the final margin.

Joel Dahmen saved par with a tough chip over the creek for a 70 and finished three shots behind.

Homa, who won the NCAA title at Cal in 2013, won for the first time in his 68th start as a pro. The victory gets him into the PGA Championship in two weeks at Bethpage Black and the Masters next April.

The victory was worth $1,422,000, about $454,000 more than he had made in his previous 67 starts.

Justin Rose (68) finished alone in third and moved ahead of Brooks Koepka to No. 2 in the world.

Staff/wire report