Fairfield

Loyola's rise in the rankings this week is a positive sign for the Eastern College Athletic Conference, but the No. 8 Greyhounds aren't the only evidence of the league's competitiveness. No. 6 Denver went to the Final Four last spring and routed then-No. 6 Penn State, 14-6, on Saturday. No. 15 Fairfield joins Loyola as two of five remaining teams in Division I with undefeated records. Bellarmine knocked off then-No. 18 Dartmouth, 12-10, on March 6, Air Force edged Army, 9-8, in overtime, and even No. 19 Ohio State - which has dropped two straight - has a significant win against Denver.

Less than 24 hours after winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament and securing its first NCAA tournament berth since 1994, the Loyola men's basketball team arrived at BWI-Marshall Airport this morning looking tired and happy following its 48-44 win over Fairfield on Monday night. Shane Walker, Loyola's senior big man who sank a free throw with less than five seconds to go to seal the win, walked off the plane with the gleaming gold MAAC 2012 championship trophy. "It's been hard to get it away from me," Walker said of the trophy.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos turned and pumped his fists in the direction of the team's cheering section during the second half of Monday night's Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men's basketball title game. There was still a long way to go, but you could tell the ever-energized Patsos liked the way his team was playing. His appreciation was rewarded. But it wasn't easy. The Greyhounds held Fairfield scoreless in the final 1:01 of the first half and then 7:47 into the second, allowing Loyola to post a 48-44 victory that gave Loyola (24-8)

The Loyola men's basketball team has played some great games as they've risen to the top of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference standings. Sunday's game at Reitz Arena will not be regarded as one of them. Down by just four at the half, the Greyhounds (19-6, 12-3) were out-rebounded, out-hustled and out-everything-elsed in a MAAC loss to Fairfield (15-10, 10-4) 68-51. Erik Etherly and Robert Olson lead the Greyhounds with 17 points apiece. Rakim Sanders led a very balanced Fairfield team with 13 points.

Robert Olson scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half, including seven in a row, and visiting Loyola overcame a 15-point second-half deficit to defeat Fairfield, 66-63, Friday night. The Stags (8-9, 3-3 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) took a 45-30 lead with 16:42 to play. Eight minutes later, a layup by Justin Drummond capped a 17-5 Greyhounds run that cut Fairfield's lead to 50-47. The Stags built their lead back to nine, 58-49, but Loyola (12-4, 5-1) went on a 13-4 rally to tie the game at 62-62 on a 3 by Olson with 79 seconds left.

Regarding your article about the proposed waste-to-energy plant in South Baltimore, I don't think it's a good idea to have another such plant in the area since there is already such a high concentration of pollution there ("Delay sought for trash-burning power plant in Fairfield," Jan. 9). If we are trying to reduce pollutants in the air, all a new plant would do is discourage recycling and make it even harder to build other "green" energy projects. That's a step backward, not forward.

A New York-based company that had announced more than a year ago it was ready to start building a disputed trash-burning power plant in south Baltimore is now seeking a waiver of a state-imposed deadline to begin work on the $1 billion project within the next month Energy Answers Baltimore filed a motion with the state Public Service Commission asking to defer the regulatory panel's requirement that the company start construction by Feb. 5 at a...

Mike Sawyer's four-goal performance wasn't enough as No. 18 Loyola fell to Fairfield, 10-9, Thursday in an ECAC semifinal at Denver University's Peter Barton Stadium. Sawyer scored the game's opening goal just eight seconds in after John Schiavone won the faceoff and fed a waiting Sawyer for a goal. Fairfield, however, rebounded quickly, as Marshall Johnson tied it at 1-1 with 9:20 to play in the first quarter, and Brent Adams added the Stags' second goal less than two minutes later, giving Fairfield the lead, 2-1. The Stags face host No. 5 Denver, an 11-4 winner over Ohio State, in Saturday's championship at 1 p.m. WOMEN American Lacrosse Conference No. 14 Ohio State 14, No. 20 Vanderbilt 13: Annie Carruthers made 15 saves, including a stop in the final seconds, to preserve the Buckeyes' (10-6)

It's unclear whether D.J. Comer was a second or even third option in overtime. What is certain is that the senior midfielder became the reason the Loyola men's lacrosse team vaulted into second place in the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings, as his blast from the right alley 49 seconds into overtime lifted the No. 20 Greyhounds to a 7-6 win over visiting Fairfield before 1,283 at Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore on Saturday....

Amid a heavy, unrelenting rain that quickly turned Weedon Street into a landscape of puddles, movers packed what they could Thursday morning at the Drake home, an isolated, wood-frame house whose residents were, until this week, the last holdouts against the complete industrialization of the Fairfield area in South Baltimore. Inside the house, reachable by a makeshift walkway of cardboard and wood that promptly delivered visitors' feet into deepening pools of muddy water, Debbie Mitchell surveyed what was left in the house where she has lived for eight years with her friend, James Drake.