Longhorns Advance To Winner's Bracket With Late Rally

The nation's #4 Texas Longhorns and #5 Arizona State Sun Devils were involved in a bitter fight in tonight's opening round matchup of the 2013 Women's College World Series.  The two teams previously met on March 14th in the season's only previous meeting and the Sun Devils shutout the Longhorns 3-0 in the Judi Garman Classic.  This time around, the Longhorns looked for a revenge outing.  Both starting pitchers, Texas' Blaire Luna and Arizona State's Dallas Escobedo, led the way with no-hitters in the early innings, but the Sun Devils broke open the game with the game's first hits and runs in the top half of the 5th inning.  Elizabeth Caporuscio's first hit of the game started a big inning for both teams.  After Bailey Wigness added another hit, Alix Johnson drove in both baserunners with only one out.  Luna escaped the inning after two earned runs and her teammates played the offensive role in the bottom half of the inning.

Stephanie Ceo's single to third base was the Longhorns' first hit of the evening and the start of an explosive inning.  After a walk by Brejae Washington with two outs, Taylor Thom's bloop hit in shallow right field drove in Ceo and a throwing error allowed Washington to tie up the game.  The following batter, Kim Bruins, homered to left as the Longhorns added two runs and took a 4-2 lead.  Bruins was snagged of a home run earlier in the game by leftfielder Caporuscio, but earned every inch of this home run as the ball bounced off the same fielder's glove and jumped over the wall.

Haley Steele opened the 6th inning with a solo home run for the Sun Devils, but the Longhorns struck with the game's final two runs in the bottom half of the inning.  Torie Schmidt and Karina Scott reached base via a hit up the middle and walk, and scored via RBIs by Stephanie Ceo and Taylor Hoagland.

The Texas Longhorns advanced to the winner's bracket with a 6-4 victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils tonight.  Kim Bruins closed out the game for Texas because starting pitcher Blaire Luna's pitches were stolen by an Arizona State coach, but had no issue retiring the side with two strikeouts in the top of the 7th.  The Longhorns ended a seven-year scoreless streak in College World Series games with a program record-six runs in a College World Series game.  The Longhorns will play the nation's top team Oklahoma tomorrow night in the winner's bracket, while Arizona State plays #8 ranked Michigan in the loser's bracket on Saturday.

Pacers Finish Off Knicks & Advance to 1st ECF in 9 Years

The Indiana Pacers found themselves in a comfortable situation when they hosted a potential-closeout Game 6 against the New York Knicks tonight.  There was much uncertainty when Pacers' star George Hill went down in Game 5 on Thursday with a concussion, but his clearing prior to tonight's tipoff energized the hometown fans at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.  It was a slugfest between the longtime rivals, but a hot start by the Pacers put them ahead early.  They expanded their lead in the second quarter and led by eight at halftime.  The Knicks were physical in the first half, but had no answer stopping the deep roster of Indiana until the third quarter.  The Knicks had lived and died by the three point shot all season and were effective behind the three point arc in the second half tonight.  They converted on four consecutive threes in the third quarter and erased a ten point deficit with a 12-2 run in a minute and a half.  The Knicks and Pacers fought for every basket and control of the game.  The Knicks continued to nail threes in the fourth quarter and finished with nine in the second half, but the Pacers' defensive stops became the deciding factor.  The Pacers made defensive plays throughout the game, including nine forced turnovers and seven blocked shots, but the most important play of the game came with five minutes remaining.  The Knicks were leading 92-90 when Roy Hibbert rejected what looked like an easy shot attempt for Carmelo Anthony.  The Pacers scored seven unanswered points after Hibbert's key defensive stop and knocked out the Knicks with a 16-7 run in the game's final 4:50.  George Hill's four clutch free throws in the final minute was the final dagger, as the Pacers eliminated the Knicks with a 106-99 victory in Indianapolis tonight.

Indiana advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in nine years with Lance Stephenson leading the charge with 25 points and 10 rebounds tonight.  Paul George added 23 points and Roy Hibbert finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds.  They finished off the Knicks in six games and will face the Miami Heat beginning Wednesday night.  The Knicks, on the other hand, begin the offseason earlier than expected after a great season.  Carmelo Anthony finished with 39 points and 7 rebounds, Iman Shumpert nailed 5/6 threes and finished with 19 points, and J.R. Smith totaled 15 points off the bench.