Sports

Zack Littell Looks To Lay Claim To Rotation Spot

Published

4 hours ago

February 26, 2025

Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Zack Littell delivers to the Boston Red Sox during the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

The Tampa Bay Rays are in an enviable position as they navigate their way through the Grapefruit Season toward opening day. That is, they have six extremely capable healthy starting pitchers with only five spots available. If that holds, the name most often discussed as trade or going to the bullpen is Zack Littell.

There are some non-performance reasons for this. In terms of a trade, he is a free agent at the end of the 2025 season. In terms of switching to the bullpen, he has done it before as 155 of his 202 career appearances have come in a relief role.

Every starting rotation needs a guy that is dependable, can deliver innings, and be effective. In 2024 Littell fit the bill in every category. He led the team in starts with 29, he led in innings with 156.1, and he was effective (8-10, 3.63 ERA, 110 ERA+).

With that said, it’s not often that the praise is heaped on Littell and a chorus of “extend him now” isn’t draped across the landscape of social media.

Littell is a a blue collar pitcher on the mound. He gets results without the flash of high-octane hurlers Shane McClanahan, Taj Bradley, Ryan Pepiot, Drew Rasmussen, and Shane Baz.

Over his last nine starts last season Littell seemed to lay a stake to a spot in the Rays rotation for 2025. In those starts he worked to a 5-3 mark with a 1.82 ERA (10ER/49.1IP) while striking out 41 batters and walking 10.

As the Rays move toward opening day, the hope is that Kevin Cash, Erik Neander, and company will have a tough decision to make regarding who are the starting five. With the fragility of starting pitchers, when you have one that is durable, consistent, and effective it may be wise to consider those three variables when making the decision.

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Kucherov leads the streaking Lightning to a 4-1 victory over Draisaitl and the Oilers

Published

6 hours ago

February 26, 2025

Austin Reed

Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid (97) gets around Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Brandon Hagel (38) during the third period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov had two assists and the streaking Tampa Bay Lightning beat Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers 4-1 on Tuesday night.

The Lightning posted their sixth consecutive win and improved to 7-0-1 in the past eight games overall.

Brandon Hagel, Nick Paul, Mikey Eyssimont and Victor Hedman scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves.

Draisaitl scored his NHL-best 43rd goal for the Oilers, who have lost four consecutive games. Stuart Skinner stopped 33 shots.

Draisaitl opened the scoring with a power-play goal 11:53 into the first period, but Eyssimont answered 1:18 later.

Hagel and Hedman scored in the second, and Paul’s 18th goal made it 4-1 at 7:23 of the third period.

Takeaways

Oilers: Edmonton has been outscored 17-7 in the three games coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break.

Lightning: Tampa Bay scored its first 5-on-3 power-play goal of the season. The Lightning improved to 9-1-1 at home since Jan. 1.

Key moment

Hagel moved up the boards and scored on a backhanded wraparound to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead 29 seconds into the second.

Key stat

Tampa Bay won its 19th consecutive game with the lead entering the third period and improved to 26-1-1 when leading after two periods.

Up next

On Thursday, Edmonton is at Florida and Tampa Bay hosts Calgary.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

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FSU makes No. 24 in the Woman’s AP Top weekly poll.

Published

12 hours ago

February 26, 2025

Austin Reed

The regular season titles in the four major conferences will come down to the final week of the season as league play wraps up this weekend.

Despite its loss to N.C. State on Sunday, Notre Dame still holds a one-game lead on the Wolfpack in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Texas and South Carolina are tied with one loss apiece in the Southeastern Conference. Baylor holds a half-game lead on TCU in the Big 12 and UCLA and USC are tied in the Big Ten.

The Big Ten and Big 12 champions should be decided this weekend in a pair of matchups between the top teams. Baylor hosts TCU while USC visits UCLA.

The Irish have two home games this week against Florida State and Louisville, who both re-entered the Top 25 this week at No. 24 and 25, respectively. N.C. State has an easier time with a home game against Wake Forest and a visit to SMU.

Texas routed Georgia on Monday night and will visit Mississippi State before hosting Florida on Sunday. South Carolina visits Mississippi before hosting Kentucky.

All the teams in contention are not only trying to win their conferences, but also secure better seeds for the NCAA Tournament. The selection committee will do its second reveal on Thursday night.

Rotating No. 1s

For the third consecutive week there was a different No. 1 in the AP poll. Texas became the fourth school to hold the top spot this year, marking the sixth time that’s happened in the history of the poll. There’s never been five different schools at No. 1 in the same season since the poll began in 1976-77.

Home away from home

No. 8 North Carolina is 9-0 on the road this season, the only team in Division I basketball that hasn’t lost a true road game. The Tar Heels visit Duke on Thursday trying to finish off the season perfect in that stat.

Climbing the charts

UConn star guard Paige Bueckers moved into sixth on the Huskies’ career scoring list passing Kerry Bascom, Nykesha Sales and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis in the team’s victory over Butler. Bueckers now has 2,189 and next up on the list is Katie Lou Samuelson with 2,342.

NET ratings

The NCAA’s weekly NET rankings — one of the tools the selection committee uses to determine the NCAA Tournament bracket — remained constant with the top 10 staying the same. UConn was No. 1 followed by South Carolina, Texas, Notre Dame and UCLA. After the Huskies, the next school outside of the four major conferences in the ratings was Creighton at 31.

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Gators move up to No. 3 in this week’s AP Men’s college basketball poll.

Published

13 hours ago

February 26, 2025

Austin Reed

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The biggest games of the week in men’s college basketball reside in the Southeastern Conference.

Seems to be a recurring theme this season.

It make sense given the league that was once synonymous solely with football has four of the nation’s top six teams in the AP Top 25, led for the seventh consecutive week by No. 1 Auburn. And that the league’s eight total teams in the rankings are nearly double any other conference; the Big 12 is next with three in the top 10 and five total in the poll.

But the focus this week can be narrowed even further: the state of Alabama.

The Tigers (25-2, 13-1), who have won four straight since a loss to Florida, begin a brutal four-game stretch that would have been entirely against ranked teams had Mississippi not fallen out on Monday. Auburn faces the Rebels on Wednesday night before going to No. 17 Kentucky on Saturday, with No. 12 Texas A&M and No. 6 Alabama awaiting the following week.

Speaking of the Crimson Tide, they enter the week tied with the third-ranked Gators for second in the SEC, two games behind their biggest rival. Alabama (22-5, 11-3) faces No. 24 Mississippi State on Tuesday night and visits No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday, part of a run of seven straight against ranked teams with the Gators and Auburn on deck next week.

“It’s about survival,” Tigers coach Bruce Pearl said succinctly. “The league is so good and so competitive.”

Still, the Tigers keep winning. Their only losses have come against teams ranked second (Duke) and third (Florida) in the Top 25. And they 10 wins over ranked opponents, including the current No. 4 (Houston), No. 5 (Tennessee) and No. 6 (Alabama).

Not that Pearl is satisfied. The Tigers have much bigger goals: a third regular-season SEC title in the past eight seasons, a second straight conference tournament title and, just maybe, a second Final Four and first national championship in school history.

“We’ve got to continue to try to get better,” Pearl said. “That’s our goal. And while we’re trying to do that, we’re trying to beat the people in front of us. We’re trying to play for championships.”

Elsewhere in the SEC, Vanderbilt (18-9, 6-8, No. 43 NET) can help its NCAA Tournament hopes when it visits No. 12 Texas A&M on Wednesday and then faces No. 15 Missouri on Saturday. The Commodores are among many teams in power leagues, including conference rivals Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas, that are hanging precariously on the NCAA bubble.

The Sooners play Kentucky on Wednesday and visit Ole Miss on Saturday. The Longhorns get Arkansas on Wednesday and Georgia on Saturday. And the Razorbacks follow their game against Texas with a trip to South Carolina on Saturday.

Big 12’s best

The Big 12, which has long been considered the nation’s dominant league, still has three in the top 10 and five in the Top 25 this week. Two faced off on Monday night when No. 4 Houston visited No. 10 Texas Tech, and two more match up on Saturday when No. 22 Arizona heads to ninth-ranked Iowa State.

The other ranked team is BYU, which entered at No. 25 this week after dismantling Kansas and edging Arizona last week. The Cougars visit Arizona State on Wednesday night before facing West Virginia on Saturday.