BASEBALL
Sportsman out of regional tourney
St. Joseph (Mo.) scored all the runs it would need in the opening inning to end Fort Smith’s bid for a national title.
Cooper Loe’s two-run single in the first inning enabled the Missouri state champions to beat Sportsman 2-0 in an elimination game in the American Legion Mid-South Regional Tournament on Thursday at Bobby Hayes Stadium in Pelham, Ala.
Loe’s run-scoring hit was more than enough for St. Joseph (23-8), which got a stellar pitching performance from Korbin Lamb-Bodde. The right-hander allowed 5 hits over 7 innings with 5 strikeouts to pick up the victory.
Logan Miller, Keaton Mudd and Loe all finished with two hits each for St. Joseph.
Trevor Grubbs went 2 for 3 for Fort Smith (23-18-1), which stranded seven baserunners. Ben Brooks was saddled with the loss after allowing nine hits in six innings.
— Erick Taylor
UALR hires Cox as pitching coach
University of Arkansas-Little Rock Coach Chris Curry announced the hiring of pitching coach Brady Cox on Thursday afternoon.
Cox spent the last two seasons at Texas-Arlington — in 2021, he helped the Mavericks reach the Sun Belt Conference tournament semifinals and coached pitcher Carlos Tavera, who was a fifth-round selection of the Baltimore Orioles.
As a player, Cox was a first-team All-Sun Belt catcher for Texas-Arlington from 2014-17 before being selected in the 36th round of the 2017 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals.
— Mitchell Gladstone
TRACK AND FIELD
Nairn secures gold in long jump
LaQuan Nairn, a former All-American at the University of Arkansas competing for the Bahamas, won the long jump at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday in Birmingham, England, with a leap of 26 feet, 6 1/4 inches on his second attempt.
Murali Sreeshankar of India also went 26-6 1/4 — on his fifth attempt. But according to Commonwealth Games rules, Nairn won the gold medal because he had a better second-longest jump (26-0 3/4), which came on his first attempt. Sreeshanker’s second-best mark was 25-3/48 on his second and third attempts.
Nairn became the first Bahamian to win the long jump at the Commonwealth Games, which this year is being held for the 22nd time. The Games were first held in 1930.
Roje Sonta, who will be a senior at Arkansas this year after transferring from Clemson and is competing for Jamaica at the Commonwealth Games, finished sixth in the discus Thursday with a throw of 203-11.
Dominique Scott, a former NCAA champion for the Razorbacks competing for South Africa, finished seventh in the 10,000 meters on Wednesday night. She ran 31 minutes, 25.18 seconds.
— Bob Holt
VOLLEYBALL
GAC releases preseason poll
The Great American Conference released its annual preseason coaches poll on Thursday for the upcoming 2022 season.
Oklahoma Baptist was voted the favorite after receiving six first-place votes, totaling 112 points. Harding finished second with four first-place votes and 104 points.
Southwestern Oklahoma State and defending league tournament champion Arkansas Tech each received a first-place vote and were picked to finish third and fourth with 104 points and 101 points, respectively.
Henderson State (75), East Central (Okla.) (72), Southern Nazarene (59), Southeastern Oklahoma State (51), Northwestern Oklahoma State (47) and Ouachita Baptist (32 points) rounded out the top 10.
Arkansas-Monticello (18) checked in ahead of Southern Arkansas (17).
— Democrat-Gazette press services
SOCCER
UCA picked sixth in ASUN poll
The ASUN Conference released its preseason women’s soccer team and coaches poll Thursday.
The University of Central Arkansas, which finished last season 9-9, was voted sixth out of 14 teams by the league’s coaches.
UCA defender Gracie Hair was named as a preseason all-conference defender.
The Bears’ season-opener is Aug. 25 against the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.
— Sam Lane