Division

The roller coaster ride for the St. Mary's men's lacrosse team continued its descent. After opening the season with a 2-1 start that included a 13-12 upset of then-No. 11 Roanoke, the Seahawks dropped their third consecutive game, falling to No. 12 Denison, 11-6, at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field on Wednesday afternoon. St. Mary's (2-4) found itself in a 4-0 deficit after the first 4:11 of the game and trailed 5-0 with less than six minutes to go in the first quarter. "I'm proud of how we came back and made a game of it, but we've just got to come out stronger," said senior attackman Patrick Mull (Fallston)

Off to a 5-0 start, Maryland is the unanimous top-ranked team in Division I, leads the nation in offense with an average of 16 goals, and trails only Hofstra as the stingiest defense in the country after allowing just 6.8 goals per game . But this season's success - which includes a 12-10 defeat of reigning national champion Loyola, which knocked off the Terps in last year's NCAA tournament final - could worm its way into the players' egos,...

An electrician sued a Bel Air payroll company five years ago, alleging that it failed to submit payroll taxes for his employees, so he wonders why it took until last week for the Internal Revenue Service to start an investigation. "They know what's going on," said Ron Biskup, owner of Biskup Electric LLC. The authorities, including the IRS, were notified of the issue. And two other businesses also sued the payroll firm AccuPay Inc. around the same time, for similar reasons. Still, it wasn't until after a veterinarian's office filed a suit on Feb. 27 that the IRS put its criminal division on the case.

Here's another subplot in the build-up to what should be a free-for-all in the AL East this summer: Almost every team in the division can play the nobody-believed-in-us card. With the exception of maybe the Blue Jays, who generated the most offseason hype this winter, the teams in baseball's deepest division might all enter the season with a chip on their shoulder. Case in point: Yankees first baseman (and Mount St. Joe alum) Mark Teixeira suggesting that his $200 million team is embracing an underdog role this season.

When the No. 1 Northwestern women hit the road this weekend for games at North Carolina on Friday and Vanderbilt on Sunday, the Wildcats won't just be aiming to hold onto the No. 1 ranking. They could give coach Kelly Amonte Hiller her 200th career win. Amonte Hiller, in just her 12thseason, is 198-30. Her seven-time national champion Wildcats have averaged 18 wins since she took over the rejuvenated program in 2002. They were 5-10 their first season, 8-8 the following year and 15-3 in 2004.

Dunbar senior guard Daxter Miles has shown a knack for the dramatics when the No. 2 Poets have played Edmondson this season. In an epic Baltimore City boys basketball championship game Tuesday at Morgan State - a well played and tightly contested battle that didn't have a defining moment until overtime, largely because neither team would budge - Miles once again stepped up at the opportune time. Trailing by two with nine seconds left in overtime, Miles sank a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give the Poets a thrilling 74-73 win over the No. 5 Red Storm for their second straight Division 1 championship.

There are more than 80 players from Baltimore and the surrounding counties on 2013 Division I baseball rosters. Towson boasts the largest number with 14, followed by Coppin State with 10 and Maryland with nine. The season for the majority of the schools begins Feb. 15. If any players are omitted, email sports@baltimoresun.com with "Baseball" in the subject field. College Name Position High school Year Albany Ryan Stinar P North Harford Fr. Bethune-Cookman Michael Austin OF Century Fr. Coppin State Ian Arciaga INF Mt. Carmel So. Coppin State Alex Brown C Meade So. Coppin State Will Grebenstein P Meade Fr. Coppin State Paul Hawk P Meade Jr. Coppin State Zack Hawk P Meade So. Coppin State Frank Mewborn OF Randallstown Jr. Coppin State James Nadeau P St. Mary's Fr. Coppin State Nathan Pitts Jr. INF Digital Harbor Fr. Coppin State Michael Roberts P St. Mary's So. Coppin State Chris Vazquez P Arundel So. Cornell Eric Upton P Dulaney So. Delaware Michael Gillespie P Boys' Latin Fr. Delaware State Burnell Dailey OF Glen Burnie Jr. George Mason Kevin Lingerman ...

For a few minutes on Saturday afternoon, St. Vincent Pallotti's Antonio Santoro was the most popular person on McDonogh's campus. Unfortunately for him and the No. 1 Eagles, it didn't last. Santoro lost a 6-1 decision in the championship match at 285 pounds to Good Counsel's Jemal Averette, giving the Falcons the three points they needed to pass host McDonogh to win their first-ever A Division team championship at the Maryland Independent Schools state tournament. The Falcons accumulated 266 points en route to the win, besting McDonogh's total of 264.5 points.

Dyzhanay Burton and her City girls basketball teammates exacted their revenge against Poly on Friday night and finally eased the sting of losing last year's Baltimore City championship to their archrival. Burton, a 5-foot-4, hot-shooting point guard, scored nine of her 19 points in the fourth quarter as the No. 9 Knights rallied from 10 points down to upset the No. 4 Engineers, 48-40, and advance to next week's Baltimore City Division I championship game. "It's amazing," the junior said.

Massachusetts Lowell will move up to Division I and join the America East Conference, representatives of both announced today at a rally at the Tsongas Center on campus. The school, which is currently in Division II, will also add men's and women's lacrosse for the 2014-15 season, the Boston Herald reported on its website . The America East Board of Presidents unanimously approved accepting UMass Lowell as a member of the conference effective July 1, 2013. The move also received the unanimous support of UMass Lowell's Faculty Senate Executive Committee and Student Government Association.