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NORMAN — After former Oklahoma baseball player Joe Simpson and I exchanged pleasantries to open our Tuesday telephone interview, the discussion quickly shifted to the departure of coach Sunny Golloway.

NORMAN — Sunny Golloway said he doesn’t hold any grudges over the negative things being said about him as he departs Oklahoma for his new job as Auburn’s head coach.

Cleveland Indians reliever Vinnie Pestano has a recurring dream. A batter hits a line drive right back up the middle and it's screaming toward his head. He wakes up just before impact. The real thing is a nightmare scenario that happens a couple times a season in the major leagues. "Guys are bigger now and hitting the ball harder and we're throwing the ball harder and when a guy hits one right on the screws bad things can happen," Pestano said. Most recently, it happened Saturday night in Florida. Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Alex Cobb took a nasty shot off his head from the bat of Kansas City's Eric Hosmer. That was the second time this season everyone in the stadium at a Rays game held their breath. In early May

HOUSTON (AP) — With the bases loaded in the second inning Matt Dominguez's long fly ball came up just short and was caught for a sacrifice fly. When he had a second chance with the bases loaded again in the seventh, he didn't miss. Dominguez hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high five runs to back another solid performance by Jordan Lyles, and the Houston Astros rolled to a 10-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night. "I just missed the pitch," Dominguez said of the second inning. "I was fortunate with the same opportunity later. I got a good pitch to hit — put a good swing on it. So it's definitely a pretty good feeling.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Home runs are few and far between at the College World Series these days, which made Brian Holberton's first-inning shot all the more important for North Carolina. Holberton staked freshman starter Trent Thornton to a two-run lead before he even took the mound Tuesday, and No. 1 national seed Carolina went on to beat LSU 4-2 in an elimination game. "We certainly are happy to have survived this one," Tar Heels coach Mike Fox said. "I thought the home run by Brian was really crucial for us, just kind of let the air out a little bit and let us play with a lead, something we seemed to haven't done in a while." The Tar Heels (58-11) play North Carolina State in another elimination game Thursday. The No.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nick Vander Tuig allowed four hits over seven-plus innings and UCLA produced just enough offense to defeat North Carolina State 2-1 in the College World Series on Tuesday night. UCLA (46-17) moved within one victory of next week's best-of-three finals. The Wolfpack (50-15) will play an elimination game against North Carolina on Thursday. UCLA used two walks, two singles and a wild pitch to scratch out a couple of runs and go up 2-1 in the fifth. Two innings before, Vander Tuig tagged out a runner at the plate to keep the Wolfpack from adding to a 1-0 lead. Vander Tuig (13-4) retired 13 of 14 batters heading into the eighth inning. David Berg came on after Vander Tuig gave up a leadoff single to Brya

RedHawks 3, New Orleans 1 The Oklahoma City RedHawks took advantage of two errors in the seventh inning to beat the New Orleans Zephyrs 3-1 on Tuesday night in New Orleans A throwing error by Zephyrs catcher Kyle Skipworth allowed Brandon Laird to score OKC's first run after he had reached on an error earlier in the inning. After Che-Hsuan Lin singled in a run, Jose Martinez grounded into a double play to score Carlos Perez and give the RedHawks a 3-0 lead. At the plate Lin and Jake Elmore had two hits apiece for the RedHawks Nick Green drove in a run for New Orleans. On the mound OKC starter Brad Peacock (2-2) allowed six hits and no runs in 6 1/3 innings to pick up the win. He struck out

TORONTO (AP) — Jeff Francis isn't going to worry about his future in the Colorado rotation. Trouble is, there might not be much future left for the struggling Francis. Edwin Encarnacion hit a two-run homer, J.P. Arencibia and Maicer Izturis added back-to-back shots and the Toronto Blue Jays won their seventh straight game, beating Francis and the Rockies 8-3 Tuesday night. The Rockies lost for the fifth time in seven games and dropped to 0-8 at Rogers Centre. Francis (2-5) allowed season highs of eight runs and 10 hits in six innings, losing for the first time in four career starts against Toronto. "I didn't execute pitches," said Francis, who has lost three of his past five outings.

NEW YORK (AP) — Back in the 1980s, when the New York Yankees were in a championship drought, there was one player most fans were inevitably drawn to. The gritty first baseman with the thick eye black. The guy who crouched low and then uncoiled that sweet, powerful swing from the left side of the plate. Donnie Baseball. Don Mattingly made his first visit in uniform back to the Bronx on Tuesday, now as the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Their game against the Yankees was rained out, and the teams will play a day-night doubleheader on Wednesday.

TORONTO (AP) — Edwin Encarnacion hit a two-run homer, J.P. Arencibia and Maicer Izturis added back-to-back shots and the Toronto Blue Jays won their seventh straight game, beating the Colorado Rockies 8-3 Tuesday night. Toronto has its longest winning streak since a 10-game run in late 2008. Esmil Rogers (3-2) worked 6 2-3 innings to beat his former team and win his second straight start. Rogers didn't allow a hit until Jonathan Herrera singled with one out in the sixth. He left to a standing ovation after allowing two earned runs and four hits. He walked one and struck out five.

Former Sooner standout among several former players who have expressed their feelings about Golloway, who is now the coach at Auburn.

NEW YORK (AP) — The game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees has been postponed by rain, delaying the renewal of their old October rivalry. The game was called Tuesday night about 30 minutes before the scheduled first pitch. It will be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader Wednesday, with start times of 1:05 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. A star player and fan favorite when he was captain of the Yankees, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was back in the Bronx to face the team that passed him over when it hired Joe Girardi as skipper in 2007. The two-game series marks the Dodgers' first trip to Yankee Stadium since clinching the 1981 World Series. Hyun-Jin Ryu had been set to pitch for Los Angeles against Phil H

Editors: The scheduled game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees has been postponed by rain Tuesday night. It will be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader Wednesday, with start times of 1:05 p.m. EDT and 7:05 p.m. EDT.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. collegiate national baseball team will host its Cuban counterpart next month in a five-game international "friendship" series. The Triple-A Iowa Cubs said Tuesday the series will start in Des Moines on July 18. The Americans and Cubans will then play two games each in Omaha, Neb., and Durham, N.C. The U.S. and Cuba resumed play at the collegiate level last year in Havana after a 16-year hiatus. This year's series will be the first on American soil between the two nations since 1996. The 24-man American roster will be announced on June 30. The team will be coached by Jim Schlossnagle of TCU.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A bus carrying a minor league team affiliated with the Minnesota Twins was involved in a wrong-way interstate crash in Florida that killed the driver of the other car. Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Dylan Bryan says no one on the Elizabethton Twins bus was injured in the crash that occurred about 4:25 a.m. Tuesday near Jacksonville. A second bus picked up the team and went on to Elizabethton, Tenn. The Twins are a member of the Appalachian League and open their season Thursday. Bryan says the driver of a black Honda died. The car was traveling south in the northbound lanes on Interstate 295 when it collided head-on with the bus. The driver was described as a man in his mid-20s. His identity was

TORONTO (AP) — Josh Johnson took two extra days off to let a bothersome blister heal, then shut down the Colorado Rockies. Maicer Izturis hit a two-run single in the eighth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays won their sixth consecutive game Monday night, beating Colorado 2-0 behind Johnson and two relievers. "He had everything going on," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "Good, live fastball, ball had a lot of jump on it, and a good breaking ball." Johnson struck out a season-high 10 over 7 1-3 innings but remained winless in seven starts with Toronto, having received only 13 runs of support. He said the blister on the middle finger of his right hand, which developed during his June 9 start against Texas and twice de

TORONTO (AP) — First it was a cut on his middle finger. Then on Monday night, Colorado pitcher Jorge De La Rosa developed a new painful problem. A bruise on the tip of his thumb cut short a brilliant outing by De La Rosa, and the Rockies never managed any offense in a 2-0 loss to Toronto. Maicer Izturis hit a two-run single in the eighth inning and the Blue Jays won their sixth consecutive game, this time behind Josh Johnson and two relievers. De La Rosa didn't allow a hit until Izturis singled with one out in the sixth. That was the only hit the left-hander gave up in seven shutout innings. He walked three and struck out four. De La Rosa might have gone deeper, but had to pitch through soreness in his thumb caused by

Oklahoma City RedHawks starter Brett Olberholzer didn't make it out of the first, reliever Alex Sogard's line wasn't any better and Round Rock clobbered the RedHawks 12-2 in front of 3,622 Monday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Olberholzer retired just one Express batter, getting No. 2 hitter Engel Beltre to fly out to center. After Beltre was retired, Round Rock delivered back-to-back hits and then Olberholzer walked four consecutive batters. Sogard got the first batter he faced to ground into a double play to limit the damage to just four. Round Rock added six more in the third off Sogard, led by a two-run single by Leury Garcia. The RedHawks were outscored 38-12 in losing the four-game series 3-1.

Organizers and teams from the Heartland Classic will hold a silent auction that runs through Thursday to benefit tornado victims.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Max Knutson gave up only four hits as Mounds View shut out Rocori of Cold Spring 8-0 for the Class 3A state championship at Target Field on Monday. Knutson struck out nine Spartan batters and yielded only one base on balls during the seven-inning game. He threw 90 pitches, 60 for strikes. The Mustangs (20-6) tagged three different Rocori pitchers for 14 hits, plus getting four walks. Sam Hentges ended a home run short of hitting for the cycle, scoring three times and knocking in two. Lars Anderson also had three hits, and Justin Ortt had two. Mounds View won its first state title in its fifth overall appearance. It was the Mustangs' first appearance at state since 2000 when they finished third