Baseball

Horned Frogs win MWC tournament title

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Clint Arnold went 6-for-6 with five RBI as No. 21 TCU cemented its fifth straight NCAA Regional appearance with a 15-2 victory over New Mexico in the title game Saturday afternoon at the Phillips 66 Mountain West Conference Baseball Championship.

Arnold, named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, had a pair of doubles and homered as he completed MWC Championship play 12-of-18 at the plate. He was just short of TCU's single-game record of seven hits set by Brad Wallace against Maine in 1996.

TCU relievers Dillon Farish, Derek VerHagen, Eric Marshall and Andrew Cashner combined for six shutout innings as the Frogs' bullpen did not allow a run in 22 innings over five games in the MWC Tournament. TCU relievers surrendered just 14 hits and four walks while striking out eight.

TCU allowed just 12 runs in its five MWC Tournament games.Farish earned the win with his 2 2/3 innings of work. He scattered two hits while striking out one and not issuing a walk.

TCU totaled 19 hits.

• Bees edge Beavers: At Salt Lake City, Dee Brown, Matthew Brown and Adam Morrissey all homered and the Bees got three innings of hitless relief from Jason Bulger and Darren O'Day as Salt Lake edged Portland 5-4 on Saturday.

Dee Brown smacked a two-run homer for the Bees in the second inning, and Matthew Brown followed with a solo shot in the fourth. Morrissey ended the Bees' scoring with a two-out solo blast in the fifth.

Portland pulled within one with a two-run homer from Peter Ciofrono in the top of the sixth, but could get no more. Bulger set down the Beavers 1-2-3 in the seventh, striking out two, and O'Day followed suit by retiring six straight Portland batters, three by strikeout, in the eighth and ninth to seal the win.

Gymnastics

Sender edges Horton for U.S. title.

HOUSTON -- David Sender looked skyward, clapped his hands, then leaned over and kissed the pommel horse. He might want to consider having that piece of equipment bronzed.

The Stanford senior did just enough on pommel horse to edge Jonathan Horton for the title at the U.S. gymnastics championships Saturday night. His 13.75 on pommel horse gave Sender 180.7 points for the two-day meet, a mere 0.25 ahead of Horton, who was fourth in the world last year.

Joseph Hagerty was third and defending national champion David Durante was fourth.

The standings would have looked a lot different had Olympic gold medalist Paul Hamm been around. Hamm had built up a commanding lead in Thursday night's preliminaries, but he broke the fourth metacarpal in his right hand in the final seconds of his parallel bars routine.

Hamm could have surgery as early as Tuesday, and recovery is at least four weeks.

Auto Racing

Kyle Busch wins eighth race of the season

CONCORD, N.C. -- Joe Gibbs Racing's hold on the Nationwide Series finally has been snapped -- by one of its drivers.

JGR superstar Kyle Busch drove a Toyota fielded by Braun Racing to victory Friday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway, snapping a six-race winning streak for Gibbs' cars in the Nationwide Series.

But in stretching a tank of gas the final 68 laps, Busch still ensured a JGR driver celebrated in Victory Lane for a seventh consecutive race, and he was visited in Victory Lane by team president J.D. Gibbs.

"That meant a lot to me," Busch said.

It was Busch's fourth Nationwide victory this season and eighth overall spanning NASCAR's top three series. It was also Toyota's ninth win in 13 Nationwide events this season.

As Busch celebrated his win on the frontstretch with his trademark sarcastic bow to the crowd, the crews for Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski scuffled on pit road over contact the drivers had on track. NASCAR officials needed several minutes to control the scene, and Hamlin and Keselowski watched confused from inside their cars.

The action started under caution with three laps to go when Hamlin and Keselowski trailed Busch as they weaved back and forth to keep their tires warm. Hamlin, frustrated over what he described as poor racing etiquette by Keselowski over the full 200 laps, ran into the side of Keselowski and damaged his front fender.

Hamlin said he had initially planned to talk to Keselowski after the race, but retaliated when Keselowski ran into the back of him.

"You throw a rock, I'm going to throw a concrete block back," Hamlin said.

Keselowski was unapologetic.

"We raced hard and that's what racing is," Keselowski said. "He doesn't like when guys race him hard? Well, that's the sport and that's what I do."

The two then spent a tense several minutes seated next to each other during the post-race news conference, which was attended by a NASCAR official waiting to escort both drivers to a meeting with the sanctioning body when they were done. Also in attendance was Hamlin's team owner, Joe Gibbs, and Marshall Carlson, general manager for Hendrick Motorsports, which co-owns Keselowski's car.

WNBA

Silver Stars top Storm

SAN ANTONIO -- Sophia Young scored 23 points, Becky Hammon added 20 and the San Antonio Silver Stars defeated the Seattle Storm 87-72 Saturday.

Hammon, who came into the game in a shooting slump, made 6-of-15 shots from the floor, including 4-of-10 from 3-point range. Helen Darling added 14 points and Ann Wauters had 10 for the Silver Stars, who defeated the Storm for the sixth straight time.

In another WNBA game, the Connecticut Sun beat the Sacramento Monarch 87-64 for their first 3-0 start in franchise history.

Connecticut made a season-high 14 3-pointers, including 10 in the second half. Barbara Turner scored 17 for Connecticut, while Amber Holt had 15, Asiha Jones scored 12 and Tamika Whitmore added 11.

Whitmore scored Connecticut's first and last field goals of the third period -- both 3-pointers -- as the Sun turned a two-point halftime lead into 13 at 62-49 entering the fourth quarter.

Arena Football

Blaze edge Rush

SALT LAKE CITY-- Quarterback Joe Germaine was 28-of-38 for 233 yards and five touchdowns and Steve Videtich drilled the game-winning field goal as the Utah Blaze defeated the Chicago Rush, 51-48, on Saturday night at EnergySolutions Arena.

Aaron Boone had 10 catches for 88 yards and two touchdowns while J.J. McKelvey added nine catches for 70 yards and two touchdowns. Rodney Filer rushed for two touchdowns on 28 yards.

Rush QB Russ Michna finished 17-of-30 for 206 yards and five touchdowns with one interception. Donovan Morgan had six catches for 50 yards and three touchdowns.

Boxing

Hatton wins unanimous decision

MANCHESTER, England -- Ricky Hatton prevailed in a lopsided decision over Juan Lazcano on Saturday to retain his IBO light welterweight title and restart his career before a raucous home crowd.

Hatton won easily on all three judges scorecards at the Manchester City soccer ground: 120-110, 118-110, 120-108. It was his first fight since he lost a WBC welterweight bid against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December. That was his first loss in 44 career fights.

"It was a difficult fight," Hatton said. "I've never been more nervous in boxing match in my life, all those demons were in my mind about not coming back so strong."

After the fight it was announced that a deal had been sealed for Hatton to face Paulie Malignaggi, who won Saturday on the undercard, in November, with New York a likely location.

For Lazcano, it was the 33-year-old Mexican's first fight since losing a 12-round decision to Vivian Harris in February 2007 in a WBC light welterweight title elimination bout.

Malignaggi, of New York, narrowly defended his IBF light-welterweight title with a split-decision victory over Lovemore N'Dou but his movement was limited after the sixth round when a knuckle in his right hand was likely broken.The judges scored the 12-round fight, which had no knockdowns, 114-115, 116-112, 116-113.