Dec 1, 2017 4 min read

LPGA Q school

Waynesburg native Rachel Rohanna has some work to do if she is to secure an LPGA Tour card for the 2018 season.

Rohanna is tied for 113th place after three rounds of the 90-hole LPGA Qualifying Tournament being held this weekend at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Rohanna followed an opening round 71 Wednesday with a two-over 74 Friday for a two-round total of 1-over 145. She was tied for 28th place and seven strokes behind the leader. However, Rohanna shot 8-over 80 that dropper her to 9-over for the tournament.

There are full-time LPGA Tour cards up for grabs for the top 20 finishers. Rohanna is 11 shots out of 20th place. The field will be cut to the top 70 players and ties after Saturday’s round.

This is the third and final round of LPGA qualifying tournaments. Rohanna advanced directly to the third round based on her 11th-place finish this year on the Symetra Tour.

Pirates make scouting moves

The Pittsburgh Pirates have hired Junior Vizcaino as their director of international scouting.

Vizcaino spent last season as global crosschecker for the Boston Red Sox. Vizcaino previously spent 17 years with the Kansas City Royals, including a decade as the team’s national supervisor.

Pittsburgh last month parted with Rene Gayo, its longtime director of Latin American scouting. Major League Baseball cited rules violations by Gayo. The Athletic reported Gayo accepted an improper payment.

Pittsburgh also hired Steve Williams as director of pro scouting. Williams has been with the Pirates since 2010 and spent last season as pro supervisor.

Vols name Fulmer AD

Tennessee has turned to its familiar past to comfort its uneasy fan base in an attempt to rescue what has been a tumultuous and embarrassing football coaching search.

The man Volunteer faithful blamed for the chaos: John Currie. Chancellor Beverly Davenport, who watched as the search was bungled seemingly at each turn, finally had enough.

So she turned everything over Friday to Phillip Fulmer, naming the College Football Hall of Famer Tennessee’s new athletic director. Fulmer replaces Currie, who was suspended and placed on paid leave just eight months after taking the job.

The chancellor said at a news conference that Fulmer will be Tennessee’s athletic director “for the foreseeable future” and “take the reins of our search.”

Ole Miss gets

bowl ban

Mississippi’s football program won’t participate in the postseason this year or in 2018 as part of the NCAA’s sanctions levied against the school in the long-running rules violation case that included a charge of lack of institutional control.

In the latest development in the more than five-year ongoing case, the Committee on Infractions Friday came down fairly hard on Ole Miss. Most notably, the NCAA decided the one-year self-imposed postseason ban was not enough for the Rebels, who finished the regular season with a 6-6 record.

Ole Miss had hoped to avoid a postseason ban in 2018, but was hit with another year and plans to appeal the decision.

PSU promotes Rahne

Penn State has promoted Ricky Rahne to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach to replace Joe Moorhead, who left the Nittany Lions to become head coach at Mississippi State.

Coach James Franklin also announced Friday Maryland offensive line coach Tyler Bowen would be joining the staff as tight ends coach and Rutgers special teams coordinator Phil Galiano was hired to take the same position with the Nittany Lions.

Rahne had been passing game coordinator for Penn State the past four seasons, coaching quarterbacks (2014-15) and tight ends (2016-17).