SPORTS digest

YSU’s Friday game moved ahead 2 hours

CHICAGO

First pitch for the Youngstown State baseball team’s series opener at UIC on Friday has been moved up two hours to 5:35 p.m.

The start time was changed due to low temperatures that are expected later in the evening.

The game is scheduled to be broadcast live on ESPN+ and WatchESPN.

Live stats for the Horizon League contest will be available through links on YSUsports.com, and fans can also follow @YSUBaseball on Twitter for live updates.

Sprint Car Series set at Sharon Speedway

Hartford

The FAST “410” Sprint Car Series will run a complete program on Saturday at Sharon Speedway. The Penn-Ohio Pro Stock Championship Series, RUSH Sportsman Modified Touring Series, and the Econo Mods also will race.

Pit passes will go on sale at 4 p.m. with the main grandstands opening at 5. Warm-ups begin at 6, followed by qualifying for the Sprint Cars and racing action at 7.

Sharon Speedway is owned by the Blaney, Weller, and Kirila Families and is a 3/8-mile dirt track located on Custer-Orangeville Road. For more information, visit www.sharonspeedway.com or call 330-772-5481.

Kraft’s attorneys spar with Fla. prosecutors

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

The rivalry between Robert Kraft’s New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins appears tame compared to the heated contempt expressed between Florida prosecutors and Kraft’s defense attorneys in his misdemeanor prostitution solicitation case.

One day after prosecutors accused attorneys Alex Spiro and William Burck of lying in court, the duo fired back in court documents Wednesday, calling the accusation “scurrilous” and “baseless.”

Prosecutors Judith Arco, Greg Kridos and Craig Williams want Judge Leonard Hanser to find the pair in contempt of court; Burck and Spiro want the prosecutors sanctioned.

“The prosecutors have now gone beyond trampling the rights of Mr. Kraft and into sullying the reputations of defense counsel,” Spiro and Burck wrote. The only explanation for the allegations, they said, is the prosecution’s “bad-faith efforts to distract from its own misconduct and from fatal defects in its case.”

The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office declined comment.

TV cameras did catch Arco last week using an obscenity under her breath to describe Spiro. That happened during a hearing over a request from Kraft’s attorneys to suppress video secretly recorded by Jupiter police. The video allegedly shows Kraft twice paying for sex at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in January.

Kraft, 77 and worth $6 billion, is one of 25 men charged with paying between about $50 and $100 for sex at the spa. The owner and some employees have been charged with felonies.

Kraft has pleaded not guilty but issued a public apology for his actions.

Georgia sprinter impaled by javelin

ATHENS, Ga.

A Georgia track athlete was expected to make a full recovery after being impaled by a javelin during practice.

Freshman sprinter Elija Godwin was injured Tuesday when he and his fellow sprinters were doing backward sprints at the university’s track.

According to school statement, Godwin backed into a javelin that was implanted in the ground, causing the rear part of the spear to pierce his back.

A report from campus police said Godwin suffered a punctured and collapsed left lung.

Rescue workers were able to cut off part of the javelin, and the rest was removed during surgery at Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center.

“It was truly an accident,” Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said. “Nobody threw anything or anything like that.”

Godwin was in stable condition Wednesday but will miss the remainder of the track season.

Staff/wire report