My Sports News Digest

MySportNews іѕ a sports news digest publication that compiles real time, on demand sports news, articles, аnd resources. This article was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For more college football news see: Smith throws 2 TDs in WVU spring game .

BLACKSBURG (CFB/Kercheval) – As we noted yesterday, inclement weather sidelined Virginia Tech’s annual spring game, and unfortunately for fans, there will not be a makeup day.

But that doesn’t mean Saturday was a total bust for the Hokies. According to the Washington Post, VT “received verbal commitments from at least six prospects – the most the Hokies have gotten on one day since 2005.” Included in that group is highly touted quarterback Bucky Hodges.

Hodges, a six-foot-five prospect, is a four-star recruit, according to Rivals.com.

Rivals.com shows that VT only picked up three commitments from yesterday, but five within the last few days. No matter the official number, Tech had a more-than-solid recruiting weekend when you consider the focal point was the spring game.

MySportNews іѕ a sports news digest publication that compiles real time, on demand sports news, articles, аnd resources. This article was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For more college football news see: Hokies have big recruiting day despite cancelled spring game.

SEATTLE

Phil Humber, who underwent Tommy John surgery seven years ago, threw the first perfect game in the majors in almost two years, leading the Chicago White Sox to a 4-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.

It was baseball’s 21st perfect game and first since Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay threw one against the Florida Marlins on May 29, 2010. It was the third in White Sox’s history, joining Mark Buehrle against Tampa Bay on July 23, 2009, and Charles Robertson against Detroit on April 30, 1922.

“This is awesome,” Humber said. “I’m so thankful.”

With the White Sox lined up on the top step of the dugout, Humber fell behind 3-0 to Michael Saunders leading off the ninth. But he rebounded to strike him out. John Jaso then flied out before Brendan Ryan, another pinch-hitter, struck out to end the game.

Ryan took a checked swing and missed at a full-count pitch, but the ball got away from catcher A.J. Pierzynski. Ryan lingered outside the batter’s box for a minute, unsure of umpire Brian Runge’s call, and Pierzynski fired to first to complete the play.

Humber, who was involved in a trade for Johan Santana in 2008, fell to his knees went it was over, and his teammates rushed toward the mound to congratulate him.

“I don’t know that I dominated them,” Humber said. “Obviously the ball was hit at people. I’m thankful for that. It was a well-pitched game. Definitely something I’ll never forget.”

The right-hander struck out nine and threw just 96 pitches in his first career complete game. He went to a three-ball count only three times.

It was quite a contrast to his first start of the season, when he went 5 1-3 innings and threw 115 pitches in a no-decision against Baltimore on Monday.

Humber was traded from the New York Mets to the Minnesota Twins in the deal for Santana, he bounced around for a couple of season and was acquired by the White Sox on waivers from Oakland in January 2011.

He was 9-9 with a 3.75 ERA in 163 innings last season, his first full season in the majors as a starter.

It was the majors’ first no-hitter of the season. There were three last year: Francisco Liriano of Minnesota, Justin Verlander of Detroit, and Ervin Santana of the Los Angeles Angels.

It was the third no-hitter thrown against Seattle. Mark Langston and Mike Witt of the Angels combined on one on April 11, 1990, and Dwight Gooden of the Yankees threw one on May 14, 1996.

Humber struck out the side in the second while cruising through the first four innings in just 45 pitches. Chone Figgins’ fly ball to left in the fourth was the first ball to reach the outfield. Dustin Ackley followed with a hard liner to right that Alex Rios reached up and stabbed.

The White Sox moved farther and farther away from Humber as he approached history, leaving him alone as he sat on the bench in the Safeco Field visitors’ dugout.

Justin Smoak struck out swinging to start the eighth. Kyle Seager lofted a fly to left that looked momentarily like it had a chance to land, but was caught by Dayan Viciedo. Jesus Montero followed with an easy ground ball to second base, sending the perfect game to the ninth.

Paul Konerko hit his second home run of the season and No. 398 for his career in the second. He also had a run-scoring single in the third.

Mariners starter Blake Beavan (1-2) allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings.

Humber was drafted No. 3 overall by the New York Mets out of Rice in 2004. He reached the majors in 2006 but his career was sidetracked by the elbow injury.

He becomes the latest one-time Mets pitcher who went on to throw a no-hitter elsewhere, a group that includes Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Gooden and David Cone. New York has never had a no-hitter in its 51-year history. The only other team without one is San Diego, which began play in 1969.

Notes: Coming into Saturday, the Mariners were hitting .103 over the last three games with runners in scoring position, with no extra-base hits and eight strikeouts while grounding into three double plays. . Mariners RHP Felix Hernandez has 25 career starts with seven or more shutouts innings. . Seattle reliever Hisashi Iwakuma made his major league debut Friday night, becoming the last player on an Opening Day roster who was not hurt or optioned to the minor leagues to do so. . Rios came into Saturday with an eight-game hitting streak.

MySportNews іѕ a sports news digest publication that compiles real time, on demand sports news, articles, аnd resources. This article was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For more MLB baseball news see: White Sox’s Humber throws perfect game.

The Atlanta Falcons will not appear on the next season of HBO’s Hard Knocks, league sources said Saturday.

The decision was made by, among others, owner Arthur Blank, general manager Thomas Dimitroff and head coach Mike Smith. They were in agreement that the focus should be on football over the summer, and they didn’t want anything to distract from that.

The Falcons were among a number of teams considered for the show, but they were never formally offered, according to a source close to the situation.

The Falcons reportedly were the network’s first choice once the New York Jets appeared to be disinterested in doing the show again, and Dimitroff was non-committal on the subject when asked by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.

“Right now, I have nothing to offer on that,” Dimitroff said. “Like all of us, we’ve watched it over the years and there have been some highlights,” Dimitroff said. “There have been some highlights, no questions about that. It’s interesting TV.”

Follow AlbertBreer on Twitter @AlbertBreer.

MySportNews іѕ a sports news digest publication that compiles real time, on demand sports news, articles, аnd resources. This article was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For more NFL news see: Atlanta Falcons pass on HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’ to focus on game.

PITTSBURGH - For the Pittsburgh Penguins, it’s almost always about the stars, the big stars.

Sidney Crosby is arguably the biggest name in hockey. Evgeni Malkin is the Art Ross Trophy winner and one of the favorites to win the Hart Trophy as MVP. Almost every other team in the NHL would feel fortunate to possess either one; the Penguins pencil both of them into the lineup every night.

But in an elimination game — and, no doubt, their biggest game of the season so far — Pittsburgh’s stars didn’t carry the Penguins. Not even close. Instead, a must-win 3-2 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals on Friday was driven not by Malkin and Crosby, but by Jordan Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury, Tyler Kennedy and Steve Sullivan, Kris Letang and Brooks Orpik.

Yes, the “other” Penguins.

Rarely do the Penguins win an important game without either Crosby or Malkin finding the scoresheet. This was the exception. Now the Penguins find themselves down 3-2 heading into a Game 6 that, when the Flyers led 3-0, appeared to have little chance of being played.

“We need to win one game,” forward Matt Cooke said. “We need to win Game 6 to get back here for Game 7. It’s a race to four – they’re at three, we’re at two, but we need to win again.”

It’s also a race the Penguins probably wouldn’t have expected to win beforehand if they had known Crosby and Malkin wouldn’t get a point between them.

It wasn’t that Crosby played a bad game; to the contrary, he didn’t, winning 16 of 22 faceoffs while constantly pressuring in the offensive zone, although he was credited with only two shots.

Malkin had a much more uneven game, taking two penalties – including one that resulted in a power-play goal – and giving the puck away five times. No player on either team had more than two giveaways.

Malkin took a roughing penalty in the first that led to Scott Hartnell’s goal at 17:35 and a 2-1 Flyers lead. He also went off for interference late in the second, but Pittsburgh killed off that one.

Malkin was coming off a two-goal game as Pittsburgh won 10-3 in Game 4, but he was visible for all the wrong reasons in this game.

“There was certainly some emotion involved in the penalties he took,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “Tonight the emotions got the best of him in some of the situations and took those two penalties … but we won this game.”

The Penguins won because Fleury was exceptional while turning aside 14 shots in the third period – seven on a single Flyers power play – Staal scored his fourth goal in two games and Kennedy won it with a slap-shot goal in the second, his third goal of the series.

“Flower made some unbelievable saves,” Crosby said.

And for all the Flyers’ focus on controlling Crosby (three goals in the series) and Malkin (two goals), it is the Penguins’ third center who is carrying their offense. Staal is best known for being a shutdown defender who can neutralize the most gifted of players, yet he already has six goals.

All of a sudden, Philadelphia’s problem is shutting down the shutdown defender.

“He’s more than capable of doing that,” Crosby said. “He’s showing offensively how gifted he is.”

Kennedy, who often plays on Staal’s line, said it’s more of what he sees all the time during the season. Staal had 25 goals and 25 assists despite missing one-quarter of the season to injury.

“He can put the puck in the net whenever he wants,” Kennedy said. “It’s great to see that he’s trying to take over games here and I’ve got a lot of faith in him.”

But to win Game 6 on Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center (12 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC), the Penguins understand it will take more than the support cast to accomplish it. They need Crosby and Malkin to be … well, Crosby and Malkin if they are to send the series to a decisive Game 7.

“We need Geno at his best,” Bylsma said. “we need everybody at his best in Game 6.”

MySportNews іѕ a sports news digest publication that compiles real time, on demand sports news, articles, аnd resources. This article was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For more NHL news see: Penguins’ role players outshine stars in Game 5.

CALCATERRA/MLB – One last thing on the Cody Ross strikeout: feel pity for Ross, feel some aggravation at umpire Larry Vanover, but let us not slight Jose Molina, whose pitch framing is about as good as it gets in baseball and, as Bradley Woodrum notes at FanGraphs today, was likely the biggest reason that call went the way it went.

BURLINGTON (Chu/Agosta) – The 2012 IIHF Women’s World Championship started Saturday, Apr. 7, in Burlington, Vt. Julie Chu from the United States team and Canadian team member Meghan Agosta blogged for NHL.com about their experiences during the tournament.

Before the gold medal game against Canada on Saturday we were able to witness a great moment in women’s hockey. We showed up at the rink early and when we walked in there the Swiss team was actually playing the Finnish team for the first time ever in the bronze medal game. Switzerland actually won their first medal in international play at the A-pool level. I think that was a great victory for them. We can all step back and realize that was a great moment for Women’s hockey that we can have new teams come into the ranks of the top three. It also helped us to increase the intensity and excitement of the gold medal game.

I had goose bumps when I stepped on the ice. It was a great game. It was probably one of the best gold-medal games that I’ve been a part of. I think the atmosphere was again similar to the previous Saturday when we got as chance to play Canada. It was a sold out arena with a ton of American flags and a couple sections of Canadian fans as well, so the atmosphere was incredible. It was really important to have such an incredible crowd to play in front of.

Canada came out flying in the beginning and we expected that because of the previous score that we had against them. We took an early penalty that kind of put us on our heels a little bit and I would say the first ten minutes Canada was playing very solid hockey and we were just trying to settle in but as the rest of the first period progressed, we evened it up and by the end of the first the shots were very even.

Special teams were a huge part of the success of both teams and we ended up going down 3-1 in the second period. It’s a bit of a killer when that happens, but the thing that I loved about our team when I looked around was that there was still a belief that we had the opportunity to win. Even though we were trailing 3-1 at that point, it wouldn’t take much for us to get the tides to turn.

We killed off the big 4 on 3 power play that the Canadians had at one point and I think for us that was huge. The next period we came out and it was a great show and we gained a lot of momentum. Canada took a couple of penalties and that allowed us to score on the power play and the next thing you know, it was 3-3. When that last power play goal was scored, our bench erupted. Everyone was jumping on each other, the enthusiasm was there, the momentum had shifted and the crowd was going crazy and it was late in the second period. Right after that, we went into the locker room and there was a great buzz. We had worked hard, we had fought back from a two-goal deficit and we were ready to keep going.

In the third period, we came out and it was a great period, back and forth. Again we were able to capitalize and went up, 4-3. It was awesome. It was a great moment for us and we played some tough hockey from there. The Canadians though are a great team and they’re really competitive and they were able to poke in a power-play goal late in the third and that brought us into the overtime, 4-4.

In overtime it wasn’t long until Canada scored, it was just 2:00 in. Sometimes, that’s just the way it goes. It’s a sudden death game and we were trying to battle and work hard and unfortunately it went in their favor this time around. It’s a tough pill to swallow because we were playing on our home soil, we just had this incredible comeback, we were competitive and we believed in our team and when you don’t win at the end of it it’s definitely one of those things that stings. It will sting for a little bit but at the same time I’m so proud of the effort our team put towards the entire tournament from game one to two, three, four and into the final game.

We all agreed that if we were going to go on that ice and put on a USA jersey that we were going to play the best that we could and make sure that we were always going to become better after each game and make sure that we were correcting all the little things even if we were successful on a game day. Overall, as far as our team played, it was awesome. Also, the fact that Burlington, V.T., hosted they did such a phenomenal job, it just made my experience that much better.

When we step back from it, in a couple of weeks it’s easier to not have all the raw emotions behind it, but I think we all see what an incredible hockey game that was and anyone that had an opportunity to see it said that it was unreal. So, I was proud to be a part of it and I was proud that our team continued to fight, being down one goal in the first period and coming back then being down two goals, coming back and taking the lead and it was definitely and emotional roller coaster and it was a great experience.

For all of us, right now, once the tournament is over we all head back to our home, we feel a void for a little bit because we just spent three weeks together, training and playing and dedicating our lives to hockey and to each other.

The world championships for us are really the pinnacle of what we work for every year. It’s what we dedicate our lives too, and what we’re passionate about and I’m so grateful that we have an opportunity to be a part of it. There is kind of this lull right now and you have flashbacks from the game and think about it, but, I think that a lot of times when I think back it’s with a lot of smiles and we have some incredible teammates that made this experience so special. The last three weeks have been a testament to that. Now I will get some rest and recovery and in two weeks time I’ll get ready to dedicate myself to another year of training so that we can hopefully have a different result when we get to Ottawa for the 2013 worlds.

MySportNews іѕ a sports news digest publication that compiles real time, on demand sports news, articles, аnd resources. This article was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For more NHL news see: Chu: US proud of efforts in championship game despite loss to Canada.

MySportNews іѕ a sports news digest publication that compiles real time, on demand sports news, articles, аnd resources. This article was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For more college football news see: USC’s defense beats offense in spring game.