ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Jamaal Charles, the Kansas City Chiefs’ all-time rushing leader, has signed with the AFC West rival Denver Broncos.
“Excited to have Jamaal Charles join the Broncos,” general manager John Elway tweeted Tuesday afternoon upon signing Charles to a one-year, incentive-laden deal. “A great addition to our backfield, and we’re thrilled we won’t have to play against him!”
The Chiefs cut the 30-year-old running back in a cost-cutting move this winter. He played in just eight games over the last two seasons after tearing his right ACL in October 2015.
Charles ran for 7,260 yards and 43 touchdowns in nine seasons with the Chiefs, who ended Denver’s five-year run as division champs last year.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A new ball park to replace Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita is one step closer to reality.
The Wichita City Council on Tuesday approved a sales tax bond district to fund about half the projected cost of replacing Lawrence-Dumont.
The Wichita Eagle reports the goal is to replace the 82-year-old stadium with a modern baseball park that could also be used for soccer.
Star bonds are expected to pay about half of the expected $40 million cost. City officials hope that will be enough to build a new stadium, although a major renovation could be an alternative.
City officials also want to replace the Wingnuts, the current baseball tenant at Lawrence-Dumont, with a higher-level minor-league baseball team affiliated with a Major League Baseball franchise.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Eric Hosmer and Jorge Bonifacio hit two-run homers, and the Kansas City Royals snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 6-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Monday night.
Bonifacio homered with two outs in the fourth after Alex Gordon doubled. It was his second home run in eight games since being promoted April 21 from Triple-A Omaha.
Hosmer’s two-out homer in the seventh inning with Christian Colon aboard finished the night for White Sox rookie starter Dylan Covey (0-2).
Salvador Perez’s single in the fifth struck the third base bag and scored Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas with two outs.
Left-hander Jason Vargas (4-1) allowed one run on five hits and three walks over six innings to pick up the win. Vargas has a 1.42 ERA in five starts.
HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State dropped both games of its doubleheader with Pittsburg State on Monday (May 1). The Gorillas took the first two games of the three-game series by scores of 8-5 and 8-6. PSU moved to 22-24 overall, 16-16 in the MIAA, while FHSU moved to 10-35 overall, 3-29 in the MIAA.
Steve Johnson Postgame Interview
Game 1: Pittsburg State 8, Fort Hays State 5
Fort Hays State held an early 2-0 lead after an inning, but saw Pittsburg State score eight unanswered runs in the middle of the game. The Tigers created a two-out rally in the ninth that fell just a batter shy of getting the potential tying run to the plate.
An error to open the game allowed the Tigers to get a pair of unearned runs in the first. Ty Redington scored on a passed ball and Trevor Hughes had an RBI double.
Alex Ruxlow cruised through the first three innings but allowed his first run in the fourth on a double and an RBI single. He ran into further trouble in the fifth when two singles, a double, and a pair of home runs helped Pittsburg State plate five runs to take a 6-2 lead. Another two-run homer allowed with no outs in the seventh ended Ruxlow’s day on the mound. He allowed 13 hits and two walks, with one strikeout.
After allowing the two unearned runs in the first, Cody Whiting settled in and struck out 10 Tigers in his 6.2 innings of work for the Gorillas. He allowed five hits and five walks. Ty Rowe relieved for 1.1 innings and did not allow a run.
The Tigers were down to their last out in the ninth against Tripp Tucker when Trevor Hughes hit a solo home run to right field. After a Cody Starkel double, Clayton Basgall sent a two-run homer over the wall in left field. The Tigers all the sudden had the PSU lead down to just three. After a walk, Bryce Whitchurch struck out to end the game, leaving the Tigers just a batter shy of potentially getting the tying run to the plate.
Zac Rothert was solid in relief for the Tigers, getting the final nine outs against PSU by allowing just one hit and two walks.
Game 2: Pittsburg State 8, Fort Hays State 6
After both teams played to a scoreless contest through four innings, the bats came alive for both teams in the middle innings turning the contest into a seesaw battle. Ben Ramberg of FHSU and Dante Richardson of PSU were locked in a pitcher’s duel until the fifth.
Game 2 Highlights
The Gorillas opened the scoring in the fifth with a two-out RBI single, but the Tigers responded for their first lead of the game in the bottom half of the inning with three runs. A Cody Starkel solo home run in the fifth broke up Richardson’s streak of retiring the first 13 batters of the game. A pair of singles and a walk set the table for Ty Redington with the bases loaded. He delivered a two-RBI single through the left side of the infield to give the Tigers a 3-1 lead.
Pittsburg State fired right back with four runs in the sixth to regain the lead at 5-3. A pair of doubles plated three runs in the inning and a wild pitch caused the other run.
Fort Hays State pulled back into the lead with three more runs in the seventh on a Dayton Pomeroy solo home run and a two-RBI single by Nick Hammeke. Cort Lesmeister was responsible for all three runs in the inning, even though reliever Ty Rowe allowed the go-ahead hit to Hammeke.
Ramberg reached the end of his day when he allowed a double to open the PSU eighth. He allowed six runs over his seven innings of work with four strikeouts. He surrendered nine hits and two walks.
Clayton Basgall entered in relief and could not hold on to the lead allowing a single, then sacrifice fly that tied the game. A single and walk loaded the bases and then he hit a batter, putting PSU in the lead for the third time and for good. A groundout RBI capped the three-run inning for the Gorillas.
Rowe shut down the Tigers the rest of the way, retiring the side in order in the eighth and ninth, picking up his fifth win of the season. He retired the final seven batters he faced following the Hammeke two-RBI single in the seventh. Basgall took the loss moving to 0-3 on the season.
HAYS, Kan. – The Hays High boys golf team placed seven in the top-10 and won the team title at the TMP-Marian Invitational at the Smoky Hill Country Club Monday.
The Indians shoot a 323, 26 shots ahead of second place Larned. The Moanrchs finish fifth with a 379.
Tradgon McCrea shot a 7-over-par 78 and finished second, two shots back of Colton Massey of Larned.
TMP-Marian’s Cameron Rozean shot a 79 and finished third.
Hays High’s Justin McCullick was fourth with a 79. Allen Zollinger placed fifth after an 82, Josh Norris was seventh with an 84, Taden Zimmerman eighth with an 85 Payton Kieffer ninth with an 86 and Collin Werth 10th after an 87.
GREAT BEND, Kan. – The TMP-Marian girls’ soccer team ended their two game skid with a 6-0 win in Great Bend. The Monarchs improve to 7-4-1 on the season and are scheduled to travel to Garden City Thursday.
INDIANAPOLIS – Fort Hays State sophomore golfer Hannah Perkins has been selected to play as an individual at the 2017 NCAA Division II Central Regional, announced Monday (May 1) by the NCAA. This year’s regional will take place at Minnehaha Country Club, a par-71, 6,073 yard course tucked away in the heart of Sioux Falls, S.D. The 54-hole tournament will be conducted May 8-10.
Perkins qualified as the second individual in the Central Region after posting a stroke average of 79.6 over 21 rounds this season. The top 12 teams and the top six individuals not on those teams qualify to participate in each of the four regional tournaments. The top three teams along with the top three individuals not with a team from each region will advance to the NCAA Championships, played at Findlay Country Club in Findlay, Ohio (May 17-20).
The Wichita, Kan. native is the second women’s golfer from FHSU to qualify for regional competition, and the first in over 10 years. Shelby White advanced to the 2006 West Regional after winning eight tournaments during the 2005-06 season. White finished 24th at the postseason tournament, firing rounds of 83, 85 and 79.
Perkins was the top finisher for the Tigers in all 10 tournaments this season, claiming her second-career victory at the Ranger Invitational (Oct. 23-24). She posted three top-10 finishes on the year to go along with seven top-20 placements.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Miguel Sano homered and drove in five runs, helping the Minnesota Twins beat slumping Kansas City 7-5 on Sunday for the Royals’ ninth straight loss.
Sano posted his fourth consecutive multihit game. He has 11 hits in his last 16 at-bats. He drove in nine runs in the two-game, rain-abbreviated series.
Sano connected in the third after Jason Hammel (0-3) walked Byron Buxton and Max Kepler. He added run-producing singles in the fourth and sixth innings.
It’s the longest slide for Kansas City since a 12-game skid in April 2012.
EDMOND, Okla. – Central Oklahoma won their first MIAA Tournament Championship as the defeated Emporia State 10-6 at Broncho Field in Edmond, Okla.
UCO jumped out to an early lead as in the top of the first Tori Collet and Carli Jones had RBI singles to make it a 2-0 lead. Ashleigh Tramel would follow that up with a grand slam making it a 6-0 lead after the Broncho first.
The Hornets would answer immediately in the bottom of the first as Jacie Stephens reached on a fielders choice driving home MaKenna Davis. Annie Rockley and Stephens would score later on the same play as they took advantage of a throwing error.
The Bronchos would get a run back as Morgan Heard homered to left field making it a 7-3 lead. The Hornets would cut the lead to one in the bottom of the fifth inning as Davis tripled to right center driving home Caitlin VanVleck. Hailey Cope would follow that up with a an RBI single through the left side plating Davis. Stephens would drive home the third run of the inning with a sacrifice fly that brought Rockley home.
UCO would grab some insurance runs in the top of the sixth inning as Tramel doubled to right center plating Brooke Zukerman. Lexi Watson would then hit a line-drive home run to left center field bring Tramel home.
Tramel was two for three with two runs scored and five driven in while Heard finished three for four with two runs scored and one driven in. Jayden Chestnut got the win for UCO working a complete game and striking out four.
UCO earns the MIAA’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament while all other teams will await the announcement of the field on Monday, May 8 at 9 a.m. on ncaa.com.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Miguel Sano and Joe Mauer hit consecutive two-run doubles in the eighth inning and the Minnesota Twins rallied for a 6-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.
Sano also had a two-run homer in the fourth. He has eight hits in his last 11 at-bats.
The Royals have dropped eight straight.
Sano’s double high off the top of the left-center fence with the bases loaded scored Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton. Two pitches later, Mauer doubled off Joakim Soria down the right-field line to score Max Kepler and Sano. Kepler had reached on a fielding error on Royals rookie right fielder Jorge Bonifacio.
Soria (1-1) retired only two of the seven batters he faced. Craig Breslow (1-0) retired the only batter he faced to pick up the win. Brandon Kintzler earned his sixth save in as many chances.
Salvador Perez hit s two-run homer and Brandon Moss added a solo shot for Kansas City.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — With the 51st pick of the NFL draft, No. 7 was looking for a change of fortune in his seventh season as architect of the Denver Broncos.
General manager John Elway has grabbed some first-round steals and some late-round gems.
It’s Round 2 that’s been his bugaboo.
After starting his tenure with solid second-round picks in Rahim Moore, Orlando Franklin, Derek Wolfe and Brock Osweiler, Elway’s last four second-round picks proved more head-scratcher than headliner.
Adam Gotsis, Ty Sambrailo, Cody Latimer and Montee Ball have 11 combined NFL starts and Ball is out of the league entirely.
Elway chose Florida State defensive end DeMarcus Walker in the second round Friday night.
Walker was a consensus All-American and the ACC’s defensive player of the year after piling up 16 sacks and 21 1-2 tackles for loss during a sensational senior season that began with 4 1-2 sacks in the second half of the Seminoles’ opener against Ole Miss.
“I’m just a relentless player with skills,” said Walker, whose Twitter handle is @livinglegend_44. “I’m all in wherever they want to play me. I’m going to go after the quarterback to win games.”
Walker’s selection came 24 hours after Elway bypassed some highly regarded defensive players to finally plug a persistent, gaping hole at left tackle with Utah’s Garett Bolles .
The Broncos used their third-round selections on Louisiana Tech wide receiver/kick returner Carlos Henderson and Lamar cornerback Brendan Langley, who’s also a return specialist.
“I was born to play this game,” said Henderson, who caught 82 passes for 1,535 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2016 and can relieve pressure on Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders.
Langley replaces free agent departure Kayvon Webster in the Broncos’ “No Fly Zone” secondary.
Elway’s first draft, where he nabbed superstar Von Miller with the second overall pick, included Moore and Franklin, who combined to start 111 games in four seasons before leaving Denver as free agents following the 2014 season.
Moore started 48 games but is best remembered for giving up Jacoby Jones’ 70-yard TD in Denver’s devastating loss to Baltimore in the playoffs. Franklin started all but one game in his four years in Denver.
In his first three drafts, Elway had a five second-round picks and the only one who reached a second contract in Denver was Wolfe, the 36th overall pick in 2012.
Osweiler started seven games in the Broncos’ Super Bowl-winning season in 2015 but bolted to Houston in free agency after being benched for Peyton Manning in the playoffs. He’s now in Cleveland.
Some teams stick to the mantra of picking the best player available in the first round but tip the scales in the second round and give more credence to the voices of coaches than scouts, filling pressing needs they may have bypassed in Round 1.
Whether or not that played a role in any of Denver’s drafts, Gotsis, Sambrailo and Latimer were all called reaches by draft analysts. To a lesser extent, so was Ball, the only one of Elway’s previous eight second-round selections who got cut before his rookie contract was up.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs began bolstering their defense in the second round of the NFL draft on Friday night, selecting defensive end Tanoh Kpassgnon out of Villanova with the 59th overall pick.
The 6-foot-6, 289-pound Kpassgnon is the first player chosen from the Football Championship Subdivision school since offensive lineman Ben Ijalana in 2001. But despite playing at a smaller school, his raw athleticism and impressive Senior Bowl performance put him on many draft radars.
The Chiefs chose quarterback Patrick Mahomes II with their first-round pick Thursday night.
Much like Mahomes, who will be given time to develop behind Alex Smith, the Chiefs will expect a certain learning curve for their new edge rusher. Kpassagnon didn’t play football until the sixth grade, preferring instead to play soccer — until his buddies began to get interested.
His mother was against it for a while, but she ultimately signed him up.
He was lightly recruited and wound up at Villanova, where he piled up 45 tackles, 11 sacks and 21 1/2 tackles for a loss during his senior season with the Wildcats.
“The biggest transition is that everybody is going to be good. There’s no bad players in the NFL,” he said. “Just put me out there and I’ll make some plays. I’m ready.”
Kansas City also had needs at running back and middle linebacker, where Derrick Johnson is coming off a second ruptured Achilles tendon. But when Ohio State’s Raekwon McMillan went to Miami and fellow linebacker Zach Cunningham of Vanderbilt was chosen by Houston just ahead of the Chiefs’ only third-round selection, the Chiefs decided to fill address another of their glaring holes.
They recently released starter Jaye Howard, who missed much of last season with a hip injury, and offseason signing Bennie Logan could become a free agent after next season.
“I might have and a couple of interviews with them, but I didn’t have any private workouts,” he said. “They didn’t show as much interest as other teams. It was kind of a surprise.”
The Chiefs still had a third-round pick to make Friday night.
Like most teams around the state of Kansas, Hays and Dodge City’s baseball seasons have been changed because of the weather. Friday night the moisture held off but the cold weather did not. Hays and Dodge City split their double header as they squeezed in the games before the rain in the weekend’s forecast.
Game 1
Hays 4 – Dodge City 3 (9 innings)
Hays helped Dodge City to a two run lead thanks to errors through the first five innings. Hays battled back in the bottom of the sixth inning which was led off by Jace Armstrong’s first career home run. Hays tied the game at two runs a piece when Palmer Hutchinson blooped single into the outfield.
Each team scored a single run in the seventh inning to force extra baseball. Hays had the winning run on the third base in the each the seventh and eighth inning before breaking through in the ninth. The Indian’s Cody Peterson reached first on an error then moved to third on a errant pick-off throw from the pitcher. The Red Demons elected to load the bases with two intentional walks, bringing Trey Riggs to the plate. Riggs raked a hard single off the third baseman’s glove who was playing in on the infield.
Game 1 Highlights
Palmer Hutchison took the win in the 4-3 opener. Hutchison pitched two innings of relief after being cleared to play medically the day before. Tyrone Wynn pitched the first seven innings allowing three runs, one of which was earned. Dodge City’s starting pitcher went six and a third innings before leaving due to the state mandated 105 maximum pitch count rule.
Game 2
Dodge City 12 – Hays 4
Dodge City jumped out to a 6-0 run on their way to a 12-4 win in game two. Dodge City sent all nine of their players to the play in the fourth inning scoring three runs. Hays answered with four runs of their own while sending nine to plate. The bottom of the fourth inning cut the Indian lead down to 6-4. Hays though would not have any more players cross the plate.
Game 2 Highlights
The Indians used four pitchers in the game, walking twelve Red Demons and hitting two more. The Indians allowed ten hits in the loss. The Indian offense notched just one hit.
Coach Frank Leo
Hays moves to 6-4 overall and 3-3 in the Western Athletic Conference. Dodge City is now 7-4 and 2-3 in the WAC. Hays is off until the Diamond Classic on May 4th, 5th and 6th. Goddard-Eisenhower, Salina Central, Life Prep Academy and Great Bend will all take part in the tournament.
