National Digest
Miami ousted
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Sean Ratliff homered and Cord Phelps tripled in Stanford’s four-run fifth inning, and the Cardinal ousted top-seeded Miami from the College World Series with an 8-3 victory Wednesday night.
The Cardinal (41-23-2) advanced to the Bracket 1 finals against Georgia, needing to beat the Bulldogs twice to return to the best-of-three championship round for the second time since 2003.
Miami (53-11) has been eliminated in three games in each of its four CWS appearances since 2003. The 1999 Hurricanes remain the only No. 1 national seed to win the championship.
LSU (49-18-1) meets North Carolina (52-13) in an elimination game Thursday in Bracket 2. The winner meets Fresno State (44-29), needing two wins to keep the Bulldogs out of next week’s best-of-three finals.
GOLF
By The Associated Press
Tiger Woods revealed he has been playing for at least 10 months with a torn ligament in his left knee, and that he suffered a double stress fracture in his left leg two weeks before the U.S. Open. He said he will have season-ending surgery, knocking him out of the final two majors and the Ryder Cup.
“Now, it is clear that the right thing to do is to listen to my doctors, follow through with this surgery and focus my attention on rehabilitating my knee,” Woods said on his Web site.
He sure wasn’t listening to doctors by playing the U.S. Open, a victory that now looks even more impressive.
Out of competition for two months because of April 15 surgery to clean out cartilage in his left knee, he suffered a double stress fracture in his left tibia two weeks before the U.S. Open.
Triathlon set
By The Associated Press
The final Olympic qualifying race for U.S. triathletes is going ahead as scheduled this weekend in Iowa after several days of flood-related uncertainty.
The Hy-Vee ITU Triathlon World Cup, which serves as the last Olympic qualifier for Americans, is set for Sunday in West Des Moines, Iowa. It was originally scheduled for Des Moines but was moved because of flooding.
There was concern that the event’s swimming leg might not take place, but USA Triathlon said Wednesday that flood waters and water bacteria levels had dropped to acceptable levels, and the swim is set for Blue Heron Lake in West Des Moines’ Raccoon River Park.
“Safety of the athletes has always been our number one priority. Every day that the lake levels dropped and the sun stayed out, we were more optimistic,” said Randy Edeker, the event’s co-chair.
Three men and three women can compete for the U.S. at the Beijing Olympics in triathlon, which involves swimming, biking and running. Jarrod Shoemaker, Matt Reed, Laura Bennett and Julie Swail Ertel have already qualified.
A-Rod goes deep
By The Associated Press
A-Rod and the streaking New York Yankees made Jake Peavy’s first — and probably last — appearance in The House that Ruth Built a short one.
Dan Haren had much more success facing his old team for the first time.
Alex Rodriguez, last year’s AL MVP, homered off Peavy, the NL Cy Young Award winner, and the Yankees held off San Diego 8-5 Wednesday night, setting a season high with their sixth consecutive victory.
Peavy (5-4), pitching for the first time at Yankee Stadium — which will close after this season — lasted four innings. In his second start since coming off the disabled list, he gave up four runs — three earned — and six hits. On a pitch count of 85-95, Peavy lasted 93 as he rebuilds his stamina.
“I felt a whole lot better than I did five days ago. The results just weren’t there,” Peavy said. “The first two innings took a lot out of me.”
“Next time, get that up over 100 and hopefully things will work a little better.”
The right-hander missed nearly a month with a strained right elbow.
In other interleague games it was: Boston 7, Philadelphia 4; Detroit 7, San Francisco 2; Baltimore 2, Houston 1, in 10 innings; Tampa Bay 5, the Chicago Cubs 4; Milwaukee 5, Toronto 4; Atlanta 5, Texas 2; Minnesota 11, Washington 2; the Chicago White Sox 8, Pittsburgh 2; Kansas City 3, St. Louis 2; Colorado 4, Cleveland 2; Florida 8, Seattle 3; and the New York Mets rallied in the ninth and beat the Angels 5-4 in 10 innings.
In the only National League game, Los Angeles beat Cincinnati, 6-1.
Donation
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indy Racing League is donating $60,000 to the American Red Cross to help flood victims in Iowa.
IRL President Brian Barnhart said Wednesday that “It was only appropriate that we help any way we can.”
The IRL will be at Iowa Speedway in Newton this week for races in the developmental Firestone Indy Lights series on Saturday and the Iowa Corn Indy 250 in the IndyCar Series on Sunday.
The league’s donation will be to the local Red Cross chapter.
TENNIS
EASTBOURNE, England (AP) — Top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova was upset 6-2, 6-2 by Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki in the second round of the Eastbourne International Women’s Open.
The Wimbledon warmup event lost another top player when Amelie Mauresmo retired with a thigh strain while leading Samantha Stosur 2-1.
Mauresmo, who won the 2006 Wimbledon title by defeating Justine Henin, said she felt her injury after she broke Stosur in the opening game.
Second-seeded Marion Bartoli advanced, showing no sign of her recent wrist injury as she overwhelmed Sybille Bammer 6-3, 6-0. Third-seeded Vera Zvonareva was upset 6-3, 6-3 to Ekaterina Makarova.
NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) — Defending champion Ivo Karlovic of Croatia defeated Sam Querrey of the United States 7-6 (3), 7-6 (14) to advance to the quarterfinals of the Nottingham Open.
Karlovic will face either Eduardo Schwank of Argentina or Andreas Seppi of Italy, whose second-round match was suspended because of rain.
Third-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain also advanced to the quarterfinals, defeating Bobby Reynolds of the United States 6-2, 6-3.
Fifth-seeded Gilles Simon of France defeated Samuel Groth of Australia 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-4, and No. 8 Gael Monfils stopped Julien Benneteau 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in an all-French matchup.
Earlier Wednesday, top-seeded Radek Stepanek pulled out of the Wimbledon warmup tournament with a rib injury. He said he may not be fit to play in next week’s Wimbledon.
DEN BOSCH, Netherlands (AP) — Defending champion Ivan Ljubicic was upset 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (5) by Viktor Troicki in the second round of the Ordina Open.
Ljubicic had 25 aces but still faced 11 break points during the match, saving 10 of them.
In the third-set tiebreaker, Ljubicic opened with two mini-breaks but then dropped five straight points.
In the quarterfinals, Troicki will face seventh-seeded Guillermo Canas, who beat Rohan Bopanna 6-2, 6-4.
Also, Arnaud Clement of France beat Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-3, and Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina beat Rainer Schuettler of Germany 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5).
In the women’s event, local favorite Michaella Krajicek overpowered Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-2, top-seeded Elena Dementieva beat Sara Errani 6-3, 7-5, and seventh-seeded Katarina Srebotnik defeated Yung-Jan Chan 6-4, 6-3.
Tamarine Tanasugarn beat Ashley Harkleroad of the United States 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 to reach her first quarterfinals since February in Pattaya City, Thailand.
FOOTBALL
CINCINNATI (AP) — Receiver Chad Johnson is expected to be fully recovered from ankle surgery when the Cincinnati Bengals open training camp next month.
Johnson had his troublesome right ankle cleaned out. He is expected to be ready for the start of training camp on July 27.
The ankle bothered Johnson last year, and the team recommended surgery when the season ended. Johnson declined, and the ankle became an issue at the team’s mandatory minicamp last week. The Pro Bowl receiver said he couldn’t practice because the ankle was bothering him.
Johnson has been lobbying for a trade since the end of last season. The Bengals refused, and Johnson has threatened to sit out the season if he’s not dealt to another team.
ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — The Oakland Raiders expect new receiver Javon Walker to be ready for training camp when he recovers from injuries incurred during a robbery in Las Vegas last weekend.
Raiders coach Lane Kiffin finally spoke to Walker by phone on Wednesday morning, more than two days after Walker was discovered unconscious and beaten on a back street near the Las Vegas Strip following a night of partying. Walker was released from a hospital after treatment for a concussion and facial injuries.
HOCKEY
NEW YORK (AP) — The NHL board of governors unanimously approved the sale of the Edmonton Oilers to Canadian billionaire Daryl Katz, and the purchase of the Tampa Bay Lightning by a group of investors led by Hollywood producer Oren Koules and former player Len Barrie.
Both deals were approved at the board of governors meeting in New York in advance of this weekend’s NHL draft in Ottawa.
Katz, the owner of the Rexall Drug Store chain, agreed in February to buy 100 percent of shares owned by the 34-member Edmonton Investors Group for nearly $200 million. He offered to pay about $22,000 for each of the 7,492 shares — a deal that represented twice the original purchase price.
Koules’ OK Hockey group also reached a deal in February to buy the Lightning for $206 million and existing debt from by Michigan-based Palace Sports & Entertainment.
