Sports

The Columbia College softball team beat William Woods 4-0 to win the NAIA Region V Tournament on Tuesday in Springfield, Mo., and earned an automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament on May 21-26 in Decatur, Ala.

Kerri Gapka (19-4) earned the win, striking out four and walking one. Amy Seipp added a two-run double in the third inning for the Cougars (43-9), who won the tournament for the second straight season.

It’s an expression Fred Burks and Steve Reller have seen countless times since April 4.

Players with their eyes wide, jaw dropped, able to muster one word: “Wow.”

A dormant Rock Bridge team, emerged from its losing skid in atypical fashion.

It didn’t need many extra-base hits. There weren’t any towering home runs.

Thank you, Columbia. Thank you for being my refuge, my home, my inspiration and my audience.

Before I moved here, I had scrapped my far-fetched dream of being the next Harry Caray. The want of money led me to enroll in college as a pre-law student, despite my fantasy of sports broadcasting. Thankfully, a desire to have fun rather than succeed in school led me to Columbia, the place where I would use a change of scenery to straighten out my priorities.

Normally, it would have been a dull night in the Rock Bridge goal for Emily Schuenemeyer and Emily Roark.

Monday, though, each goalie scored a goal in the Bruins’ 10-0 victory against the Mexico Bulldogs at Cosmopolitan Park.

Two Missouri wrestlers qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Indianapolis.

For one, it’s the end of a career; for the other, it’s the beginning of an era.

MU's men's basketball program broke numerous NCAA rules from 1999 to

2003, according to the NCAA's 19-page official notice of allegations

Don and Pat Fotti have lived in the Southwell Complex parking lot at Columbia College for the past four weeks.

They are not hitchhikers searching for a ride.

MONTREAL — Tony La Russa chose the right guys to keep in the St. Louis Cardinals’ lineup while giving some of his regulars a day off.

Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds hit home runs, and Chris Carpenter pitched eight impressive innings in the Cardinals’ 5-2 victory against the Montreal Expos on Sunday.

BOSTON — Bill Mueller put Jaime Cerda’s first pitch over the Green Monster, foul, missing a game-tying grand slam by a few feet.

Mueller then fouled off eight more pitches in a 13-pitch at-bat, including another shot that would have needed some Carlton Fisk-style body English to stay fair.

Hickman had a little more reason to play hard Saturday.

After outfielder Tyler Jones’ father, Gary Jones, died Thursday, the Kewpies pulled together to win 5-3 against St. Charles and 11-0 against Vianney at Hickman Field.

Tonya Mirts hobbled through the halls of Hickman High on Monday.

Mirts, the Kewpies’ girls’ basketball coach, didn’t elicit sympathy from her players, though.

MONTREAL — Tomo Ohka finally got a little offensive support, and he made sure it was enough to win.

Ohka and Rocky Biddle combined for a three-hitter, and Jose Vidro hit a home run and drove in two runs to lead the Montreal Expos past the St. Louis Cardinals 2-0 Saturday night for their season-high third straight win.

BOSTON — Pokey Reese hit an inside-the-park home run and added a conventional one, the first two-home run game of his career, and Curt Schilling pitched his first AL complete game Saturday as the Boston Red Sox continued their hot streak.

The 9-1 win against the Kansas City Royals was Boston’s fourth straight since losing five in a row.

Hickman fought hard, but it could not win the close matches against Rock Bridge on Thursday.

The Bruins beat the Kewpies 8-1 at Hickman. Four matches went to tiebreakers and two more went 7-5 in the first set.

Most of the divers in the 11-and-under category at the Junior Olympic Diving Championships had trained and dived competitively for two to four years.

David Bonuchi, 11, had trained for six months and was competing in his second meet.

PHILADELPHIA — St. Louis manager Tony La Russa expected a high-scoring game where the bullpens would be stretched thin.

Instead, the Cardinals’ relievers kept it under control.

ST. LOUIS — Mike Danton, a St. Louis Blues forward, was delusional and using painkillers and sleeping pills in the hours before the FBI says he tried to hire a hit man to kill an acquaintance, Danton’s agent said.

Several media reports, citing anonymous police sources, have identified agent David Frost as Danton’s intended target. Frost reiterated Thursday his belief that he was not the target.

After a shaky start, Hickman’s midfield clamped down in the second half.

The Kewpies held Rock Bridge without a shot in the second half and rarely allowed the Bruins past midfield to secure a 1-0 victory Wednesday at Audry J. Walton Stadium.

Hickman’s Janelle Cordia and Ashley Turner have been working all season to get a goal and an assist together.

The pair accomplished that feat at the perfect time. Cordia turned a pass from Turner into a 1-0 Hickman victory against Rock Bridge on Wednesday at Audrey J. Walton Stadium.