Bugaluu :: Sports

Spanish Fork players await a hit from one of their batters against Brighton during the second game of the championship series in the 5A high school baseball state tournament held at UCCU Ballpark on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem on Saturday, May 24, 2025. Spanish Fork won the game 7-3 in eight innings, tying the series 1-1 and forcing a third and final game to decide the championship.
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Isaac Hale, Deseret News

With the way mother nature have behaved this year, it’s been tough to tell what season we’re actually in. But according to the UHSAA high school sports calendar, spring is just around the corner.

The high school baseball season officially gets underway on Monday, March 2, and here’s a look at the preseason favorites in all five classifications.

Three of the five preseason No. 1s in the coaches preseason rankings are defending state champs — American Fork (6A), Spanish Fork (5A) and Crimson Cliffs (4A). The other two preseason favorites are Union (3A) and Kanab (2A).

In 6A, American coach Jared Ingersol said his team has some big shoes to fill with the graduation of last year’s Mr. Baseball CJ Mascaro and first team all-stater Cooper Jones. The Cavemen definitely have talent returning though with last year’s playoff MVP Kenny Johnson and first team all-staters Cache Poulson and Bode Gaggero.

Big things are also expected from preseason No. 2 Riverton and No. 3 Lehi.

In 5A, Spanish Fork is loaded for a run at a repeat after last year’s unlikely run to the state championship as the No. 20 seed. The Dons went 9-1 in the playoffs.

“We are really excited for this upcoming season. We return 8 of 9 position players and our whole pitching staff is back. We hope to build on the great of the season we had last year,” said Spanish Fork coach Hadley Thorpe.

Headlining that group is junior Nixon Warren, a returning 5A all-stater from a year ago.

Maple Mountain was the No. 1 seed heading into last year’s state tournament, and it will begin the season ranked No. 2 in the rankings.

In 4A, Crimson Cliffs won the state championship as the No. 8 seed, but there are big expectations this year with plenty of returning starters and experience.

“This team is returning a lot of guys from last year which helps us big time when it comes to experience and leadership. Our young guys have had a really good fall and early spring,” said Crimson Cliffs coach Justin Abbot.

Outfield Cutter Christensen is the top returning player for the Mustangs as he was voted a first team all-stater in 2025.

In 3A, defending state champion Canyon View will begin the season ranked No. 2 behind Union in the preseason rankings.

The Cougars are led by returning all-staters in senior Gannon Labrum and junior Dylan Watagomigie

“Excited about the opportunity to compete this season. We have a strong group returning and look forward to our strong schedule,” said Union coach Matt Labrum.

Canyon View graduated three of its four first team all-staters from a year ago and has some notable holes to fill.

In 2A, defending state champ South Sevier is in a similar position after graduating its top three players a year ago. It opens the season ranked third behind No. 1 Kanab and No. 2 Beaver.

Kanab was the 2A runner-up a year ago and is loaded with returning contributors from that group.

” We are excited as a coaching staff to see what we can do this year together,” said Kanab coach Craig Brinkerhoff.

American Fork Cavemen players River Litke (#3) and Kenny Johnson (#17) hug after the American Fork Cavemen wins the high school boys 6A baseball state championship series against the Lehi Pioneers held at Utah Valley University in Orem on Saturday, May 24, 2025.
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Tess Crowley, Deseret News

Deseret News preseason coaches rankings

Class 6A

Team (2025 record)

American Fork (28-4)Riverton (20-11)Lehi (19-16)Mountain Ridge (20-12)Corner Canyon (17-11)

Class 5A

Team (2025 record)

Spanish Fork (18-17)Maple Mountain (28-3)Pleasant Grove (23-6)Alta (19-8)Brighton (28-5)

Class 4A

Team (2025 record)

Crimson Cliffs (23-8) Desert Hills (24-6)Snow Canyon (23-8)Ridgeline (25-6)Timpanogos (22-9)

Class 3A

Team (2025 record)

Union (21-8)Canyon View (27-5)Juab (25-7)Grantsville (15-13)Morgan (20-10)

Class 2A

Team (2025 record)

Kanab (20-8)Beaver (24-5)South Sevier (26-6)Gunnison Valley (18-9)San Juan (21-6)

​https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/high-school-baseball-american-fork-194601479.html 

Motorsport photo

Update 02/22: Post-race interview added. Sam Mayer started Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race from pole position, but fell back after a flat tire forced him onto pit road.

He rallied back to finish seventh with a fairly clean car, but it didn’t stay that way. Mayer’s Haas teammate Sheldon Creed was victorious for the very first time in his 138th career start, and so he decided to go and congratulate him. 

After that, he realized a moment too late that he had missed the entrance to pit road. Mayer quickly cut down, only to start mowing the lawn in the infield grass. Due to showers earlier in the day, the grass was even less friendly than it normally would be to a 3,000+ pound race car. The splitter got torn off, and Mayer’s No. 41 car launched upward in a wheelie. It obliterated the front of the race car, as you can see below:

Sam Mayer went to congratulate his teammate Sheldon Creed on his big NASCAR win…

But then, oops. That’s unfortunate. pic.twitter.com/z2DpwYDHhD

— Motorsport (@Motorsport) February 22, 2026

It’s not unheard of to see post-race incidents involving supportive teammates or overzealous race winners, as cars have spun out crisscrossing the track to congratulate winning teammates before. Daniel Suarez at Nashville in 2023 is a recent incident that comes to mind. Carl Edwards even ripped the entire frontend off of his car while trying to do burnouts in the infield grass after winning the 2011 All-Star Race.

As for Creed, he was completely unaware that the incident had even happened after Mayer saluted him, and reacted to the video once he finally saw it during the winner’s press conference:

https://t.co/yX6TYESsqlpic.twitter.com/ZN8VxIHzXo

— Matt Weaver (@MattWeaverRA) February 22, 2026
Read Also:

Sheldon Creed earns first NASCAR O’Reilly win as Chastain and Hill clash

Atlanta NASCAR Cup qualifying cancelled, Tyler Reddick on pole

Two NASCAR Cup car chiefs ejected after Atlanta inspection failures

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website.

​https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/watch-sam-mayer-accidentally-destroys-021226716.html 

Hermoso suffers last minute setback, Ghilardi replaces him

At 8:45 PM, Roma and Cremonese will face off at the Stadio Olimpico on Matchday 26 of Serie A.

During the warm-up, Gian Piero Gasperini received some bad news regarding Mario Hermoso’s condition.

The Spanish central defender was back in action today after 20 days out due to a hematoma on his instep, but he pulled out again just minutes before kick-off.

His condition and the nature of the injury remain to be seen, but Daniele Ghilardi will replace him.

​https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/hermoso-suffers-last-minute-setback-194500261.html 

The Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic is typically one of the toughest non-conference invitationals in the country.

And had their first two weekends not been so loaded, games against the #11 and #13 ranked teams in a slate of five might have seemed a little stronger. But, regardless of that, the Huskers are on the cusp of accomplishing what few do – going undefeated at a weekend in Palm Springs where the tourney takes place.

I never like to take anything for granted, but their next opponent, California, is, at the time of this writing, making their way over from one of the side fields after losing to Auburn 19-5.

Ouch.

As for Nebraska, they dispatched Seattle University 9-0 in much the same fashion they won their first three games by the scores of 9-1, 13-0 and 8-2 – stellar pitching and big innings at the plate.

A 2-run 1st inning, a 4-run 3rd and a 3-run top of the 6th slowly dismantled the Redhawks’ staff as all five pitchers were used. The Huskers went with Hannah Camenzind for her second start of the weekend and she responded with 5 more shutout innings, after Friday’s no-hitter, giving her 10 scoreless so far this weekend and lowering her ERA to a team-best 1.15. She scattered 4 hits while striking out 4 with no walks.

Jordy Frahm, playing 1st base, did the most damage at the plate going 2-for-3 and launching the 3-run bomb over the right center field fence which gave the Huskers the margin to end things an inning early. Also with multiple hits was freshman Carlie Muhlbach who went 2-for-2 with a couple of RBI singles of her own and just keeps making me look smarter and smarter. She is hitting .444 with an OBP of .615. (Patting self on back. And, yes, I’ll shuttup about it. For now. Don’t judge me.)

Ava Kuszak continued bouncing back with another hit and a couple of runs – per Coach Rhonda Revelle, hitting coach Diane Miller fixed a hitch in her swing prior to this weekend and the results are showing. Six of the nine starters got a hit today as the team batting average continues to rise.

The weekend concludes against California scheduled now for 1:45.

​https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/huskers-softball-recap-cusp-undefeated-194432601.html 

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – DECEMBER 18: Zach Charbonnet #26 of the Seattle Seahawks reacts after making a play during overtime of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen Field on December 18, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images) | Getty Images

A turning point for the Los Angeles Rams during the 2025 NFL season came in Week 16 against the Seattle Seahawks. Leading by 16 points in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks scored two touchdowns and two two-point conversions to tie the game. The second of those two-point conversions became a topic of controversy as Zach Charbonnet picked up the ball in the end zone after the play was over and was awarded the conversion.

According to CBS Sports, the Rams are expected to propose a rule change this offseason regarding how that play came to be. Said CBS,

“Sources tell CBS Sports the Rams are planning to propose rule changes that would effectively make the play an unsuccessful two-point try. The Rams plan to propose at least one rule change this offseason, sources say, and there may be a second proposal aimed at certain details around that play. Teams regularly submit rules proposals toward the start of the new league year, and many of those proposals come in around the time of next week’s NFL Scouting Combine. While the language remains unclear, one source with knowledge of the proposal(s) said the Rams’ goal is to “fix what went wrong in a few places.””

At the time, the play fell within the league’s interpretation of the rules. The play was ruled a backwards pass rather than a fumble and Charbonnet was ruled to pick up the ball in the end zone in the “immediate continuing action.” The immediate continuing action can certainly be argued, but that’s how it was ruled by NFL officials.

The play came under further discussion a few weeks ago when it was discovered that Amazon rules analyst Terry McAulay made a call to the league during the game that instigated the review. The report from Pro Football Talk inferred that McAulay called the league office to discuss the play, which may have led to the review being initiated. 

It will be interesting to see what wording the Rams look to change. Following the game, McVay said that he had never seen anything or never been a part of anything like that. Even if the Rams do propose a change, it would take 24 of the 32 league owners to agree for it to take effect at league meetings in March.

​https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/rams-expected-propose-rule-change-194221846.html 

The Golden State Warriors will play host to the Denver Nuggets at their home arena of Chase Center in San Francisco, California this Sunday (Feb. 22) evening. The Dubs will be looking to get back into the win column after a recent skid, and the Nuggets are going to be looking to extend their last victory into a streak.

Both of these Western Conference ball clubs are dealing with a number of important players being out or in danger of missing the game. We are leaning towards a Denver win, but with injuries on both sides so heavy, this one could go either way.

Records, standing, and streaks

At present, the Dubs have a 29-27 record and a two-game losing streak, which has them eighth in the Western Conference standings.

The Nugs are the owners of a 36-21 record, good enough for third in the West.

What happened in the last game for each team?

Golden State lost to the Boston Celtics 121-110 at home.

Denver beat the Portland Trail Blazers 157-103 on the road.

Injuries

For Golden State, Jimmy Butler (ACL), Seth Curry (sciatica), Stephon Curry (pain), and Kristaps Porzingis (illness) are out.

For Denver, Aaron Gordon (hamstring), Tamar Bates (foot), Jalen Pickett (knee), and Peyton Watson (knee) are out, and Jamal Murray (hamstring) is questionable.

Probable starting lineups – Warriors

Draymond GreenGui SantosDe’Anthony MeltonMoses MoodyPat Spencer

Probable starting lineups – Nuggets

Cameron JohnsonNikola JokicJamal MurrayChristian BraunJulian Strawther

What time is tipoff, and on what channels?

Here’s when you should tune in to see the game:

Date: 2/22Time: 3:30 p.m. ETTV Channel: ABCLive Stream: Fubo (watch for free)

This article originally appeared on Warriors Wire: Warriors vs. Nuggets: Stream, lineups, injury reports, broadcast (2/22)

​https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/golden-state-warriors-vs-denver-194148388.html