KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Robinson Cano homered twice and drove in four runs and Hisashi Iwakuma struck out a season-high 10 as the Seattle Mariners romped past the slumping Kansas City Royals, 11-2 Tuesday night.
The AL Central-leading Royals have dropped 12 of 17. Their magic number for clinching the division remained three.
Cano and Kyle Seager each hit solo homers in the first inning for Seattle, which has the league’s best record in September at 13-6 but is still three games under .500 (74-77). It was Seager’s 25th home run and his seventh in 23 games.
Cano hit a three-run shot in a seven-run third inning for his 15th career multihomer game. Cano’s next hit will be the 2,000th of his career.
Iwakuma (9-4), who is 7-2 in his past nine starts, curbed the Royals on three singles over seven scoreless innings. He has allowed one run and 10 hits in 13 innings in his past two starts, while striking out 19 and walking one.
HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State came out on a tear by taking the first set against 14th-ranked Nebraska-Kearney on Tuesday (Sept. 22) in the MIAA opener, but the great start fizzled quickly in the second set and the rest of the match. UNK went on to win 3-1, extending its win streak over FHSU to 19 matches. The Lopers moved to 11-2 overall, 1-0 in the MIAA, while the Tigers moved to 8-5 overall, 0-1 in the MIAA.
Coach Kurt Kohler talks about loss to UNK
Fort Hays State carried over its hot play from last weekend in the first set, hitting .429 as a team with 17 kills and just two errors on 35 attempts. The defense was solid with 15 digs and four points off blocks. FHSU held UNK to just a .195 hitting percentage in the set. Mallory Flagor led the Tiger offense with five kills in the set and Rebekah Spainhour added four. Crystal Whitten put down the decisive kill with FHSU leading 24-23.
With momentum and a good-size crowd electrified after the first set win, the Tigers came out flat in the second set and never regained their first-set form. FHSU struggled to a .029 hitting percentage in the second set, a -.029 percentage in the third set, and just .100 in the fourth. Meanwhile, Nebraska-Kearney’s hitting percentage continued to rise, hitting .303 in the second set, .375 in the third, and .414 in the fourth. Fort Hays State’s solid defense from early in the match vanished, averaging just under 11 digs the final three sets. The Lopers’ defense thrived, averaging 19 digs the final three sets.
Whitten led the Tigers in kills with nine, while Spainhour added eight. Flagor and Sydner Dixon each had seven. Megan Anderson led the Tigers in hitting percentage at .308 with six kills and just two errors. Hannah Wagy produced 35 assists and she tied Flagor for a team-high 10 digs each.
Kaitlynn Thomas led UNK in kills with 18, hitting .382 in the match. Tara Ziegelbein added 11 and Skyler Erickson had 10. Lindsey Smith tallied 49 assists and Ellie McDonnell had a team-high 20 digs. Erickson had a double-double, adding 15 digs.
The Tigers hit the road for a pair of conference matches this weekend at Emporia State and No. 7 Washburn. FHSU is at ESU on Friday at 6 pm and at Washburn at 6 pm on Saturday.
BEL AIRE, Kan. (AP) — Three high school students in Bel Aire have been arrested after a threat was posted on social media.
According to Bel Aire police, one 16-year-old student and two 15-year-old students who attend Northeast Magnet High School were arrested Tuesday morning.
The TMP-Marian volleyball team picked up three more wins on Tuesday, defeating Oakley (25-19, 25-10), Smith Center (25-22, 25-29) and Hill City (25-25, 25-17) at their own quadrangular.
Kayla Viztum led the Monarchs with 12 kills. She and Bailey Hageman both recorded seven service aces while Hageman had a team-high 21 digs.
Monarchs are now 16-2 overall and 10-0 in the Mid-Continent League. They play in Hoisington Saturday
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) — A commercial fisherman found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a Kansas diver who died while harvesting sea cucumbers was sentenced to three years in prison.
The Ketchikan Daily News reports a judge on Monday suspended two years of the sentence for 33-year-old Joshua Wodyga.
A jury in January convicted him on the lesser charge but found him not guilty of manslaughter.
Prosecutors argued that Wodyga’s negligence in maintaining an air compressor and air filter led to the death of 32-year-old Levi Adams, of Leawood, Kansas. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning and drowning while he and Wodyga were diving in October 2013 in waters off Mountain Point.
Wodyga’s public defender, Mark Osterman, said he plans to appeal the sentence.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita State University is reviving its master’s degree in physics.
The move announced Tuesday in a news release comes a month after the Kansas Board of Regents green-lighted the proposal. The regents suspended the program in 2003 because of low enrollment and graduation numbers for it.
The program is officially restarting the spring of 2016, but the school is now taking applications.
Ron Matson, the dean of the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, says the next step is to recruit students.
Wichita State has 40 undergraduate physics students, but that number is expected to increase now that undergraduates can be recruited to the master’s program.
HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State edged Kansas Wesleyan on Tuesday by a score of 5-4. The No. 2 doubles match was pivotal as it would eventually decide the match when the teams split singles play. FHSU moved to 2-3 overall with the win.
The No. 2 doubles team of Alina Villalovos and Raven Dick battled to a 9-8 (7-2) tiebreak win to push FHSU to a 2-1 lead after doubles play. The match proved critical as Kansas Wesleyan took the No. 1 through No. 3 singles matches and FHSU took the No. 4 through No. 6 singles matches.
FHSU gained its first point quickly as the No. 3 doubles team of Haley Weidemann and Taylor Noel downed their opponent 8-1. The No. 1 team of Laura Jimenez-Lendinez and Jessica Johnson fell by a score of 8-5 to make it 1-1 before Villalovos and Dick battled to push the Tigers into the lead.
In singles play, the Tigers clinched the match with wins at No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6. Dick defeated her opponent 6-0, 6-2 at No. 4, Weidemann defeated her opponent 6-1, 6-4 at No. 5, and Noel defeated her opponent 6-0, 6-2.
The Coyotes scratched out three points in the other singles matches. Jimenez-Lendinez lost in three sets at No. 1, 2-6, 7-5, 10-5. Johnson was just shy of forcing a third set, falling 7-5, 6-4 at No. 2. Villalovos fell in straight sets at No. 3, 6-3, 6-2.
The Tigers take their two-match win streak into their final two matches of the fall season on September 25 against Doane College and Concordia University in Nebraska.
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — A lawsuit claiming that that the Kansas City Chiefs fired an older maintenance manager because of his age has received fresh life.
On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court vacated a Jackson County jury’s decision that the club didn’t discriminate in Steve Cox’s firing. The judges found that it was wrong to preclude 20 other former employees from testifying that they also lost their jobs because they were older.
The Supreme Court has sent the case back to the lower court for reconsideration.
Cox was 61 in 2010 when he was fired and replaced with a 37-year-old worker. The Chiefs have argued that Cox was terminated for performance issues and insubordination.
A Chiefs attorney didn’t immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment on the ruling.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has obtained a court order that prevents the judiciary from having its funding cut off through mid-March.
Schmidt’s office filed a petition Tuesday in Neosho County District Court to block enforcement of a law enacted earlier this year by legislators. The law tied the judicial branch’s entire budget to a change in how chief judges of district courts are selected.
Neosho County District Judge Daryl Ahlquist granted Schmidt’s request, preventing enforcement of the law until March 15. The Legislature reconvenes in January.
The same law is being challenged in a separate lawsuit in Shawnee County District Court by four district judges.
Under an earlier policy enacted last year by legislators, local judges pick their chief justices, stripping the Kansas Supreme Court of the decisions.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The defense has rested in the first-degree murder trial of a Kansas health care worker accused of killing a client with cerebral palsy.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that closing arguments are planned for Wednesday in the case of 49-year-old Ronald Eugene Heskett.
The Eudora man responded Tuesday to prosecution claims that he killed 65-year-old Vance Moulton for financial reasons. The defense has argued the September 2014 killing was an assisted suicide.
Heskett says the reason $13,000 was missing after Moulton’s death was because the men were partnering in a money-making venture. Heskett said they invested in a 1972 Chevelle to fix up and sell for a profit. The goal was to help raise money for a wheelchair-accessible van.
Heskett says they didn’t tell anyone else about the agreement.
Kerry Wasinger, general counsel and executive assistant to FHSU president
By BECKY KISER Hays Post
Kerry Wasinger is the new general counsel executive assistant to the president of Fort Hays State University.
She is also co-chair of the Critical Incident Policy Group on campus, along with Ed Howell, FHSU director of police and security.
This is her second week in the position and Tuesday, she observed the university’s “active shooter” exercise. On a normal day, Wasinger said, her job involves “a little bit of everything.”
“Everything from policy and advice to President Mirta Martin and the rest of the administration, reviewing and signing contracts which are of an inordinate amount at the university, and working with Chief Howell on a regular basis–beyond the emergency management side.
“We have a large amount of faculty and students who are from overseas. I work with them to make sure they’re getting their paperwork directed in the right direction. We don’t do their visas for them, but we help direct them and get their paperwork gathered for the university’s side of it.
“When my mom asked me what I was going to be doing, I told her it’s very similar to being a city attorney and my ‘city’ is Fort Hays State,” Wasinger said with a smile.
Wasinger previously worked as a staff attorney for Kansas Legal Services and the 23rd Judicial District Court trustee before joining the Herman Law Office in Hays in 2013.
She replaces Todd Powell, who resigned in January after 10 years as FHSU’s general counsel to return to private practice.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri’s attorney general is taking Walgreen Co. back to court, alleging the nation’s biggest pharmacy chain is violating a settlement reached last year over its pricing practices.
Attorney General Chris Koster’s office asked a judge Tuesday to hold Walgreen in contempt for violating terms of the 2014 deal.
Koster sued Walgreen in 2013, accusing the retailer of overcharging customers and using deceptive advertising and pricing schemes in Missouri. Koster says the investigation began after consumers complained that display prices didn’t match up with what they paid at checkout.
But Koster alleges Walgreen violated the settlement by not removing expired sales tags from shelves, and deceiving customers about those products’ prices, in roughly 1,300 recent instances.
Walgreen said it may publicly comment later Tuesday. The company is based in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois.
