Salvador Perez’s sixth-inning home run ignited the Kansas City Royals’ offense in an 8-2 win over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers in game two of a double header on Saturday night.

The Royals sent 12 batters to the plate in the decisive six-run sixth inning, nine of those with two outs. Perez hit a first-pitch curve ball 417 feet to center field for the go-ahead home run as the Royals took a 3-2 lead. After Jonathan India singled to right field, he was plated on Isaac Collins’ RBI single for a 4-2 advantage.

Kansas City poured it on as its lead grew to 6-2 on Kyle Isbel’s RBI single and Maikel Garcia’s RBI double. Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers’ error on a Vinnie Pasquantino grounder gave the Royals a 7-2 lead when Isbel scored. A wild pitch from Brewers reliever Jared Koenig scored Garcia as Kansas City took an 8-2 lead.

Nick Mears (1-0) picked up the win in relief for the Royals after one inning of work. Eli Morgan pitched the final three innings to notch his first save.

Brandon Sproat (0-1) was saddled with the loss as he pitched 3 2/3 innings of relief, surrendering four hits, four runs, walked three and struck out four.

The Royals took a 2-0 lead on Carter Jensen’s one-out double down the right-field line that scored India and Perez in the bottom of the second inning.

Milwaukee answered right back when David Hamilton led off the third inning with a single and was driven in by Brice Turang, who looped an RBI triple under the glove of a diving Collins in left field to cut the Kansas City lead to 2-1.

One batter later, Garrett Mitchell blasted an RBI double to the right-field gap to score Turang and tie the game at 2-2.

Garcia was 3-for-5 with a double, a run and an RBI, India was 2-for-4 with two runs and Jensen was 2-for-3 with a run, a double, two RBIs and a walk. Kansas City held a 10-5 edge in hits.

Kansas City starting pitcher Seth Lugo labored through 103 pitches in five innings as he surrendered four hits, gave up two runs, walked two and struck out seven. Brewers starting pitcher Logan Henderson lasted two innings, yielding three hits and two runs with a walk and three strikeouts.

–Field Level Media

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

Oliver Kapanen scored in the fifth round of the shootout to extend the Montreal Canadiens’ win streak to eight games after Saturday’s 4-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils in Newark, N.J.

Cole Caufield failed to find his 50th goal of the season, but tallied a pair of assists in the win, while Ivan Demidov, Jayden Struble, and Cole Hutson all scored for the Canadiens (45-21-10, 100 points).

Both goaltenders impressed as Jakub Dobes made 35 saves en route to his fifth consecutive win, while Jake Allen stopped 26 shots in the loss.

Jack Hughes, Timo Meier and Dawson Mercer all scored for the Devils (39-34-3, 81 points).

Struble broke the deadlock with 4:02 remaining in the first as he sent a rocket of a shot into the top corner for just his second goal of the season.

Caufield picked up his second assist of the night just over eight minutes into the second period as he slid a sneaky pass across to Demidov, who made no mistake to bury the power-play goal and extend his point streak to five games (two goals, four assists).

Hutson stretched it to a 3-0 lead 9:28 into the middle frame as the puck bounced out to him with Allen sprawled out and an empty net in front of him.

Mercer finally solved Dobes as he sent a short-side snipe over the netminder’s shoulder with 6:52 left in the second.

Just moments after Bratt was denied on a short-handed odd-man break, Hughes made the most of the second consecutive 2-on-1 chance, cutting the deficit to one with 2:20 left in the second.

Caufield had his best chance at finding his 50th goal with 7:44 left in the contest as he fired off a high shot from the slot, but Allen got it with the blocker.

Meier knotted things up at three with just 2:15 remaining in regulation as he took a pass from Hughes and sent his shot off the post and in.

Dobes robbed Bratt at one end, before Allen stoned Kapanen at the other during an exciting overtime frame.

–Field Level Media