May 1, 2019 4 min read

College baseball

Washington & Jefferson withheld a comeback by Mount Union to pick up an 8-7 victory over the Raiders on Wednesday night at Ross Memorial Park.

The Presidents improve to 27-10 overall. Mount Union falls to 20-14.

W&J led 7-0 after five innings and 8-1 after six. The Presidents were up 8-3 entering the ninth.

Spencer Howell hit a solo homer for W&J.

Winning pitcher Tanner Gaerke gave up one run on three hits over seven innings.

Pony baseball

Bodie Morgan had drove in two runs on three hits, including a double and a triple, to lead Ace Sporting Goods over Washington Hyundai, 12-6, in a Washington Pony League game. Dylan Wilson had a pair of hits for Washington Hyundai.

NASCAR throws red flag on new qualifying

NASCAR abandoned its years-long bid to add excitement to qualifying and announced Wednesday it will return to single-car laps after the current format became a laughingstock.

All three national series will make the change at all oval tracks, starting this weekend at Dover.

NASCAR for more than five years has used a group qualifying format, but a new rules package this season created an unintended consequence: drivers could game the system.

“The teams are always going to do what benefits them the most and unfortunately that was waiting, drafting,” said Scott Miller, senior vice president of competition. “It wasn’t a very compelling show. We owe it to our fans to provide something that is worth watching.”

Miller did not concede it as a victory for the teams, who found every loophole to their benefit.

“I don’t think anybody is at fault. It is something we tried, to try to provide a good show, we were optimistic and it didn’t work out,” Miller said. “Maybe we should have been more proactive, maybe they should have been active. Whatever.”

NASCAR was adamant it was trying to keep qualifying entertaining for fans because single-car runs are tedious, but teams continued to find loopholes that made the format a farce. Most drivers waited until the very last moment to pull off pit lane for their qualifying run; and all 12 drivers in the final round at California in March missed the cutoff point to even register a lap.

NASCAR officials were furious and for the past month considered various options, but the emphasis on aerodynamic draft created through the new rules package backed the series into a corner. Teams wanted an aero pull and waited for another driver to go first, and they showed no intention of stopping despite several NASCAR attempts to tighten the rules.

Elimination-style rounds were also cut.

Women’s lacrosse

Washington & Jefferson advanced to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference final with a 12-7 victory over Franciscan in the semifinals on Tuesday at Alexandre Stadium.

The second-seeded Presidents improve to 9-7 and will play top-seeded Westminster to become the first champion of the newly reformed PAC league. The title match will be Saturday in new Wilmington.

Pac-12 not changing football schedule

The Pac-12 has no plans to change its football scheduling policies and philosophies, including playing nine conference games, to enhance the league’s chances to place a team in the four-team playoff.

Commissioner Larry Scott said Wednesday conference coaches and administrators discussed during meetings this week ways to improve the league’s chances of placing a team in the College Football Playoff. The Pac-12 has failed to have a team selected three times in the CFP’s five-year existence, more than any other P5 league.

In addition to playing nine conference games, several Pac-12 schools infrequently play FCS teams and will schedule two Power Five nonconference opponents in the same season.