Sports
Huskies bark, bite as 'underdog,' bury Illinois again
Apr 4, 2026; Indianapolis, IN, USA; UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley celebrates after defeating the Illinois Fighting Illini in a semifinal of the Final Four of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images INDIANAPOLIS — A gift, and not one UConn coach Dan Hurley saw coming, became fuel for the Huskies long before the team bus pulled up to Lucas Oil Stadium early Saturday afternoon.
From Hurley’s vantage point, the overall national narrative wrote UConn into the Final Four as the underdog against an Illinois team the Huskies beat by double digits earlier in the year.
“You’re coming into the game as an underdog versus a team that you beat by 13 points earlier in the season, which was kind of surprising, that’s how we kind of came into the game. Obviously I’ve been waiting to say that,” Hurley said 12 minutes into the UConn postgame press conference.
Illinois felt UConn’s intensity almost immediately and the Huskies made a full-court, do-or-die mentality the focus of their preparation. Even though the UConn banners arranged in Storrs celebrate a growing tradition of gold-plated victories, Hurley instead preaches an eat-off-the-floor philosophy. That chip on his shoulder Saturday isn’t going away by Monday night.
“I couldn’t be more proud of my guys and how hard they fought when most people probably didn’t think we were going to win the game,” he said. “Or at least a little bit of what I saw on TV today, you know, TNT and some of the different prognostications.”
UConn is back, and at 34-5 playing for a national title on Monday night. With program royalty on hand, from Ray Allen and Richard Hamilton to Khalid El-Amin and Charlie Villanueva, UConn reacted Saturday night like the more experienced team. When things went their way and when they didn’t, the Huskies had an answer.
“We’re a group of fighters. It’s not appealing to everyone,” Hurley said. “I’m sure there’s some people in here that it’s off-putting for. But we are a group of fighters. We are incredibly tough. We’ve got incredible will. We go into these games, we’re ready for battle. Again, for us it’s not a game that we’re just kind of running around in uniforms throwing the ball around, hoping it goes in. That’s not what we’re doing out there. We’re fighting. It’s a life-and-death struggle for us to get to Monday night for the opportunity to win a championship, and then just to be able to prolong this season with each other and to make the people of Connecticut proud, to make the university proud and all the former great players.”
It was the 18th win for UConn when it held the opponent under 40 percent shooting. The Huskies guarded second-team All-American Keaton Wagler, who led Illinois with 20 points, all over the court. They doubled and swarmed, leaned into the wiry Wagler and dared someone else to carry Illinois to its second-ever championship game.
UConn designed a game plan to make Wagler work and stray from the secondary marksmen that helped Illinois average over 83 points per game this season. Illinois made 6 of 26 3-point tries and shot 33.9% in the game.
With UConn’s defense dominating, its offense did enough. Solo Ball, Braylon Mullins and Jayden Ross all made multiple 3s and UConn was 15 of 17 from the line.
Illinois trailed by double digits most of the second half until foul trouble — UConn’s 10th foul put the Illini in the double bonus with nine minutes left — helped the Illini score with the clock stopped to close the gap.
“Even when they had that run, we told ourselves we were fine,” UConn’s Silas Demery said.
Illinois (28-9) coach Brad Underwood said the Illini are heading back west for a short 90-minute ride down I-74 with a painful reminder about the slim margin between winning and losing. It has been a constant talking point this season.
“It’s why I have so much respect for Alex Karaban,” Underwood said of UConn’s senior forward. “He’s been to three of them. It’s freaky.”
In the last three meetings with UConn, Illinois has been held to its lowest scoring output of that season. That includes a loss in November of this season and a blowout in the 2023 Elite Eight. Maybe, Underwood joked Saturday night, it’s “the uniforms.”
“When they beat us in the Elite Eight, I told our coaches, that was a bad feeling. This is even worse,” Underwood said. “It hurts. My gut hurts so bad right now. I feel sad. I’m sad, if you want to know the truth. Seasons coming to an end hurts.”
Tarris Reed Jr. had 17 points to lead UConn, Mullins had 15 and Ball 13.
Hurley felt the offense had a chance to turn the game into a blowout because of the quality of looks UConn was getting. Illinois had the same reaction postgame, pointing to holding UConn to 35 percent shooting.
Even things that didn’t go their way broke right for the Huskies. After not scoring in the second half, Mullins wound up with the ball after Karaban missed a 3. He calmly connected with 52 seconds on the clock and UConn booked a couple more nights at the Marriott in Indy along with the most meaningful bus ride in the sport from Hurley’s experienced perspective.
“There’s no better feeling than being on that bus on Monday night, just being one of the last two teams standing, that bus ride to the stadium,” Hurley said. “It’s just a cool experience.”
–Jeff Reynolds, Field Level Media
Sports
William Sawalich gets breakthrough victory at Rockingham
Mar 28, 2026; Martinsville, Virginia, USA; Joe Gibbs Racing driver William Sawalich (18) pit crew try to get their car back into the final laps of the race at Martinsville Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images ROCKINGHAM, N.C. — Grabbing the lead and control of the race after a restart on Lap 172, William Sawalich pulled away over the final 79 laps to win Saturday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 250 Presented by Black’s Tire at Rockingham Speedway.
The victory was the first in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series for the 19-year-old Sawalich, the youngest driver to win at the 0.94-mile track in any of NASCAR’s top three series.
Sawalich, who led 80 laps, crossed the finish line 0.863 seconds ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brandon Jones to end the five-race winning streak of JR Motorsports and preserve the series record of six straight victories for JGR.
“It means everything,” said Sawalich, who gained three positions to 11th in the series standings. “Honestly, it was a tough year last year and a tough start to the year this year. Gosh, it feels good to get it done here at Rockingham in front of an awesome crowd.
“Our Supra was on rails today, obviously. Good in Stage 1 (fifth), Stage 2 (second) and obviously amazing in clean air. Lapped traffic took me out last year (in a 25th-place finish), so that was running through my head a little bit, but, man, I just studied the race last year, calmed down–and everything’s fine.”
With the win, Sawalich earned eligibility for the first Dash 4 Cash race next Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. The top four finishers at Rockingham–Sawalich, Jones and third- and fourth-place finishers Justin Allgaier and Rajah Caruth–will compete for a $100,000 bonus in that event, with the top finisher among them claiming the prize.
Caruth, in fact, made a spectacular three-wide pass of both Sheldon Creed and Carson Kvapil with nine laps left to grab the last Dash 4 Cash position. Kvapil finished fifth and Creed sixth, followed by Taylor Gray, Parker Retzlaff, Ryan Sieg and pole winner Corey Day.
For the first half of the race, Day appeared to have the dominant car. The 20-year-old led a race-high 118 of the 250 laps and swept the first two stages–the first stage wins of his career.
But Day lost five positions on a slow pit stop during the second stage break and never recovered. On Lap 174, he pitted out of sequence for a loose lug nut and charged from 24th over the final 70 laps to post his seventh straight top 10.
“We had a couple of bad pit stops,” Day said. “We got behind there, and it was hard to dig ourselves out of the hole.”
Jones was pleased with the progress his runner-up finish represents.
“I left Martinsville a little frustrated at myself last week (after finishing 18th),” Jones said. “We weren’t quite aggressive enough at times, so today, I was super adamant on being super aggressive. I am going to take all of the runs I can get. I’m going to put people in bad situations, if I can, and just move forward.
“I think we did a really good job of it. We kept fighting both sides of it with balance today. Sam (McAuley, crew chief) did a great job taking all of my feedback and making a car, I think, capable of winning. It was just a matter of trying to get some track position, and he (Sawalich) got such a big restart on that last restart (after the seventh caution on Lap 206) that it was hard to catch him.”
Allgaier had the consolation of leaving Rockingham with a lead of 126 points over second-place Jesse Love in the O’Reilly Auto Parts standings. Love hit the outside wall after a shove from Caruth, lost track position on a subsequent unscheduled pit stop on Lap 153 and finished 27th, two laps down.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Ramon Laureano leads Padres over Red Sox with 9th inning single
Apr 4, 2026; Foxborough, Massachusetts, USA; San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. (23) scores a run against Boston Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez (75) during the ninth inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images Ramon Laureano’s two-out RBI single in the top of the ninth inning propelled the visiting San Diego Padres to a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox in the second of a three-game series on Saturday.
The Padres found two-out magic against Boston closer Aroldis Chapman (0-1) to take the lead for good, as Fernando Tatis Jr. ripped a double over Ceddanne Rafaela’s head in center field to set the stage for Laureano’s heroic knock into left.
Miguel Andujar also had a big day for San Diego, going 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored.
San Diego had recorded just two hits between the fourth and seventh innings, allowing the Boston offense to scratch a tying run. Adrian Morejon (1-0) earned the win despite blowing a potential save, which Mason Miller wound up earning after striking out the side in the ninth.
Rafaela and Roman Anthony each had two hits for the Red Sox; Anthony hit a triple in the fifth.
In the eighth, Rafaela and Anthony started the Red Sox with back-to-back singles before pinch hitter Andruw Monasterio put together a nine-pitch at-bat and earned an RBI fielder’s choice. The Padres looked to turn an inning-ending 1-4-3 double play, but Jake Cronenworth fumbled Morejon’s throw to second.
After Boston starter Connelly Early worked out of a two-on, two-out jam to start the game, San Diego took a 1-0 lead on Bryce Johnson’s RBI grounder in the second. Freddy Fermin scored after drawing a leadoff walk and moved first-to-third on Ty France’s wall-ball single.
The bottom of the inning saw the hosts respond with a game-tying run, as Willson Contreras knocked a leadoff single to left and scored on Marcelo Mayer’s sacrifice fly.
A pair of doubles in the third helped the Padres take a 2-1 lead. Andujar knocked one into the left-field corner with one out to spark the inning, and Manny Machado kept the line moving with a walk. Two batters later, Fermin flipped the score again with a two-out liner past the dive of Boston third baseman Caleb Durbin.
Both teams’ bats were quieted for several innings thereafter, though the Red Sox had opportunities to re-tie the game with four hits across the fourth and fifth.
San Diego starter Randy Vasquez worked around three singles in the first of those frames, striking out Mayer with two on to end the threat. An inning later, Anthony’s two-out triple to deep right went by the board.
Vasquez completed six innings of one-run ball with three strikeouts.
Early threw 88 pitches in just four innings, allowing two runs on three hits and four walks while fanning four.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Astros rack up 18 hits while trouncing Athletics
Apr 4, 2026; West Sacramento, California, USA; Houston Astros first baseman Christian Walker (8) celebrates with Houston Astros third base coach Tony Perezchica (12) after hitting a solo home run against the Athletics during the third inning at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Scott Marshall-Imagn Images Christian Walker and Cam Smith hit homers and the Houston Astros recorded 18 hits as they blasted the Athletics 11-0 on Saturday afternoon in West Sacramento, Calif.
Tatsuya Imai (1-0) threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts to earn his first career major league win. The 27-year-old right-hander from Japan signed a three-year deal with Houston this offseason.
Imai left two runners on base as he exited in the sixth inning protecting a 10-0 lead, but Kai-Wei Teng came in to get the third out and keep the shutout intact.
After 2 1/3 innings from Teng, Steven Okert worked the ninth and preserved the Astros pitching staff’s first shutout this season.
Walker, Joey Loperfido and Yainer Diaz and Christian Vazquez led the way for Houston with three hits and two RBIs each.
A’s starter Luis Morales (0-2) was under siege from the opening pitch, as as four of the first five Astros to the plate reached base and Houston took an early 2-0 lead with RBI singles by Jose Altuve and Walker.
Walker then hit the first pitch of the third over the left field fence for his first home run of 2026.
Later in the frame, the Athletics’ defense let Morales down when Tyler Soderstrom lost a fly ball in the sun in left field and it dropped in for an unconventional RBI double for Vazquez.
Morales gave up five runs in three-plus innings, allowing eight hits and six walks. Changing pitchers did not reverse the A’s fortunes, as Houston added three runs off reliever Elvis Alvarado with an RBI double for Loperfido and a two-run single by Diaz.
Loperfido and Vazquez got their second RBIs of the afternoon with base hits in the sixth, before Yordan Alvarez – who drew a walk in each of his first four plate appearances – added on with an RBI single.
Smith capped off the Astros’ offensive outburst with a pinch-hit solo shot in the eighth.
Max Muncy had two of the Athletics’ four hits. That is his second multi-hit game in as many days.
–Field Level Media
Nicole Kidman's R-Rated Netflix Thriller Is 50 First Dates Meets Memento
William Sawalich gets breakthrough victory at Rockingham
