Apr 2, 2019 3 min read

Lipscomb rises up for NIT win

Garrison Mathews is the kind of player only the most die-hard basketball fans would know, his prolific scoring seldom on any sports highlight clips. With the college basketball spotlight blasted on Madison Square Garden, Mathews put the sport on notice and buried a shot in the clutch that sparked madness for tiny Lipscomb.

Mathews swished his ninth 3-pointer of the game in front of an exuberant Lipscomb bench for the lead with 1:10 left in the game to send the Bisons on their way to the NIT championship in a 71-64 win over Wichita State on Tuesday night.

“It was good to just do it for the team and kind of give us a lift,” he said.

He carried them to the NIT final.

Mathews had been buried in obscurity for the ASUN Conference Bisons (29-7), but put on a show on national television in crunch time at Madison Square Garden. He yelled as the shot fell from beyond NBA 3-point range and the Bisons rose from the bench in jubilation.

Wild Things sign infielder

The Wild Things signed infielder Javier Betancourt for the 2019 season.

Betancourt signed with the Detroit Tigers in 2012 out of Venezuela. After 4 seasons with the Tigers, Betancourt was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for closer Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez.

In 555 career minor league games, Betancourt is a .265 hitter with 535 hits under his belt. The infielder has posted a strong defensive fielding percentage annually at multiple positions while hitting 80 doubles, 16 triples. 25 home runs and 204 RBI in 6 pro seasons.

College softball

The Washington & Jefferson College softball team opened Presidents’ Athletic Conference play by earning a road split in a doubleheader with Grove City College.

The contest featured two very different results for the Presidents, who fell 10-2 in five innings in the opener before bouncing back for a 12-2 victory in an abbreviated five-inning contest.

In Game 1, the Wolverines erupted for eight runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Grove City had six hits and took advantage of two defensive miscues in the inning by W&J. Six of the eight runs in the fourth inning were unearned.

In Game 2, W&J busted out with 12 runs on 11 hits during the victory, which included a nine-run fifth inning.

W&J moved to 8-12 overall and 1-1 in PAC play, while Grove City is at 7-6 and 1-1 in the league.

• Despite a pair of homers by senior Taylor Robblee, the California University softball team dropped both games of a doubleheader at Slippery Rock to open Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West play on Tuesday afternoon, losing 2-1 in Game 1 and 9-4 in Game 2.

With the losses, the Vulcans fell to 4-14 this season with an 0-2 mark in league action. The Vulcans were playing their first games in two-plus weeks, as they last played on March 14 in Florida.

The Rock improves to 10-13 overall with a 2-0 record in divisional play.

Robblee belted a pair of solo homers in Game 2, marking her second career multi-home run game. She now leads the team with a career-high five homers this season and is the team’s active leader with 16 career homers.