Mar 1, 2021 4 min read

Bucs, Jays play to tie

Anthony Alford, claimed by Pittsburgh off waivers from Toronto last August, homered off Robbie Ray and the Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays played to a 2-2 tie in a spring training game Monday that was called in the seventh inning.

Rowdy Tellez doubled for the second straight day for the Blue Jays.

Pittsburgh starting pitcher Mitch Keller gave up a pair of runs on three hits in the first inning.

College baseball

California suffered a 9-8 loss to Wheeling after allowing the go-ahead run to score on a bases-loaded walk in the top of the ninth inning Monday afternoon at Wild Things Park.

The Vulcans move to 2-1 to open the season. Wheeling stands at 1-2 overall after being held to a pair of total runs over the weekend.

Wheeling tied the score at 8-8 in the top of the seventh when a runner on second base scored on a wild pitch. The Vulcans were unable to break the tie in the eighth after a pair of base runners reached with two outs.

In the ninth, the Cardinals loaded the bases on a single and back-to-back walk before another walk plated the eventual game-winning run.

In the NBA

Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce was fired Monday following a disappointing start to a season of heightened expectations.

The Hawks are 14-20 and 11th in the Eastern Conference, following a 109-99 loss at Miami Sunday night. The teams play again in Miami tonight.

In college basketball

Sam Hauser never got to experience playing in front of a packed John Paul Jones Arena because of attendance limitations caused by the pandemic, but the senior transfer made sure he and Virginia would have something to celebrate after his final home game.

Hauser scored 18 points and the 21st-ranked Cavaliers ended a three-game skid by handing Miami its sixth loss in a row, 62-51 on Monday night.

• Teddy Allen, the Nebraska scoring leader who set the Pinnacle Bank Arena scoring record less than a week ago, left the Huskers basketball team Monday. Nebraska was Allen’s third Division I program in a mercurial career on and off the court.

Allen began his career at West Virginia and was there for one season, transferring to Wichita State in 2018. He sat out the next season per transfer rules and never played a game for the Shockers. He was kicked off the team in June 2019 after he was arrested in connection with a disturbance with his girlfriend.

Allen moved on to Western Nebraska Community College, where he was the national junior college scoring leader in 2019-20, and then joined Hoiberg’s team in Lincoln.

Allen averaged 16.5 points per game to lead the Huskers, and he scored an arena-record 41 in a 86-83 loss to Penn State last Tuesday.

In the NFL

The Kansas City Chiefs expect Patrick Mahomes to be ready for offseason workouts following surgery on his toe, and they are optimistic that offensive tackles Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz could be available for the start of training camp.

Mahomes had surgery on Feb. 10, shortly after the Chiefs were walloped by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl, to repair a turf toe injury that had hobbled him throughout the playoffs. The recovery time is about three months, which means Mahomes – whose fiancée recently gave birth to their first child – could be ready for summer minicamp.