Saves

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's recently released 2012 State of the Bay Report tells us the health of the Chesapeake Bay has improved 14 percent since 2008. But that doesn't tell the whole story. Throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, we hear about local governments, businesses and citizens rolling up their sleeves to reduce pollution from all sectors: agriculture, sewage treatment plants, and urban and suburban runoff. They are working to restore local rivers and streams.

Caroline Franke (Severn) matched a career high of 13 saves to anchor the defense as host No. 13 Princeton defeated No. 6 Penn State, 14-8, at Sherrerd Field at Class of 1952 Stadium. Offensively, Sam Ellis had a career game with four goals and two assists. Erin McMunn (Winters Mill) also had a six-point game with three goals and three assists. Jaci Gassaway (Severna Park) reached a milestone, scoring her 100th career goal. The Tigers (10-5) started with a 4-0 run, of which Ellis had two. Princeton would never relinquish the lead and led by as many as six goals.

The Sun's Scott Dance recently reported on the salvaging of baseball fields at the shuttered Cardinal Gibbons school ("$1.4 million raised for baseball field at site of Cardinal Gibbons School," April 20). He reported money was raised by the Cal Ripken Foundation and other donors. Last week, State Comptroller Peter Franchot asked for the resignation of Towson University President Maravane Loeshke for the school's failure to manage their budget allowing for the insolvency of their sport's teams including baseball.

Niko Amato had enjoyed solid outings this season, including a 13-save display in Maryland's 12-10 redemption win against reigning national champion Loyola on Feb. 23 and double-digit stops in four of his previous contests. But in the No. 6 Terps' 8-7 victory over No. 14 Yale on Saturday, Amato may have been at his best. He finished with a career-best 24 saves, which is the most by a Division I goalkeeper in a win this season. (Rutgers freshman Kris Alleyne and Michigan freshman Gerald Logan each made 25 stops, but they both suffered losses.)

Four years ago, employees at the Howard County Office of Environmental Sustainability came up with an idea for people who want to do their part for Earth Day but don't know where to start. It's called the 20-Minute Cleanup - essentially a way to urge people, either on a whim or through precise planning, to pitch in to aid the environment. "Every year, just before Earth Day, the county government would get a lot of calls from people saying,'We want to do something for the environment, what's going on?

Mike Chanenchuk and Niko Amato saved the Maryland men's lacrosse team from what might have been a devastating blow. Chanenchuk scored the game-winning goal with 13 seconds left in regulation, and Amato turned aside a last-second shot to propel the No. 6 Terps to an 8-7 victory over No. 14 Yale before an announced crowd of 3,052 at Byrd Stadium on Saturday. Maryland (9-2) has won 10 straight against the Bulldogs, but more importantly, the Terps avoided a loss that would have been their second in a row and third in the past five games - a stretch that would have damaged their resume for the NCAA tournament.

Severna Park and Broadneck have developed one of the area's top girls lacrosse rivalries. Close games have been the norm between the Anne Arundel County powers, including last year's one-goal Severna Park victory. But on Friday, it was Broadneck that won. Sparked by a five-goal run, the host Bruins turned a three-goal second-half deficit into a 9-8 victory over the defending Class 4A-3A state champions. Senior midfielder Ellie McNulty's four-goal effort led the Bruins (8-2, 6-1)

We have a great capacity for placing people into categories and minimizing their humanity. One such category is "felons" and another is "drug addicts. " We can easily forget that men and women who have been convicted of crimes or are suffering from substance abuse issues are the same as the rest of us at the core - fallible but resolutely hopeful. Here in Baltimore, a celebration of that capacity for hope and a reminder that redemption comes in many forms took place earlier this year in a small chapel within a church on Cathedral Street.

The publication of Alfred Sommer's new memoir, "10 Lessons in Public Health," comes precisely 30 years after the publication of the most important thing he's ever written: "Increased mortality in children with mild vitamin A deficiency," a report of a medical discovery that has saved an estimated 10 million children from blindness and death. This is one of the classic stories from the realm of epidemiology, the stuff of medical detectives, and for it we slip back to the winter holidays of 1982 in Baltimore: Sommer, an ophthalmologist and professor at the (pre-Bloomberg)

Leading a tour of the Soldiers Delight area of western Baltimore County on Sunday afternoon, Paula Becker, an ecologist with Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, was pleased to report the first blooming of serpentine chickweed - a plant as rare as it is splashy in spring. And while that might not constitute earth-shattering news, it is certainly reassuring to those monitoring the health of the plant. Serpentine chickweed grows in the shallow serpentine soil of the strange, hilly grasslands of the Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area, at 2,000 acres the largest remaining ecosystem of its kind in the country.