Tournament Play

The Cal Ripken World Series, featuring teams of 11-year-old and 12-year-old baseball players from throughout the world, begins Saturday at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. The series, named after Harford's retired Orioles iron man Cal Ripken Jr., features two Maryland teams and eight U.S. regional teams affiliated with the Babe Ruth League Inc., and five teams from the Babe Ruth international division. The eight regional teams are: Kennewick, Wash. Oahu, Hawaii Greenwich, Conn. Pine Bluff, Ark. Montgomery, N.J. Raleigh, N.C. St. Cloud, Minn.

With an 8-6 record and one final regular-season contest at No. 11 Maryland, Colgate has not been mathematically eliminated from consideration for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament. But unlike last year when the team went 13-3 in the regular season and garnered only the program's second tournament appearance, coach Mike Murphy is not holding out for another at-large spot when the 16-team bracket is unveiled Sunday night. “I'm sure there's probably some sort of mathematical substance to that, but we're 29th in the RPI, and I don't know that a team outside of the top 17 or 18 in the RPI has ever made it to the NCAA tournament that wasn't an automatic qualifier,” he said Tuesday.

The Johns Hopkins baseball team will make its third consecutive appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament on Thursday, when the Blue Jays travel to Sussex, N.J., to play in the six-team, double-elimination Mid-Atlantic Regional.The Mid-Atlantic winner will advance to the Division III World Series in Battle Creek, Mich., May 26-31.In the Division I tournament, Navy (24-16-1) will face Wright State (34-19) in a play-in series with a doubleheader Thursday and a single game if necessary Friday in Dayton, Ohio.

Maryland will be the No. 7 seed in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and will begin play Thursday at 7p.m. in Greensboro, N.C. The Terps will play against the No. 10 seed -- either Wake Forest or Virginia Tech. Those teams play Sunday afternoon, and the winner will get the 10th slot. Florida State clinched the sixth seed Saturday afternoon with a win over N.C. State. If Maryland advances, it will meet second-seeded Duke on Friday night at 7. Duke has a first-round bye. Maryland swept both Virginia Tech and Wake Forest this season.

Charlie Blake won a $10,000 prize yesterday for rolling a perfect 300 game in tournament play -- in a Baltimore County courtroom, not at the bowling alley.The pins flew for him on May 7, 1989, in a perfect game that helped him to a third-place finish in the tournament worth $200. The Amateur Bowlers Tour competition was in Dundalk.But Charles Hansen Blake, 59, of the 400 block of Anglesea Street in Baltimore, believed that his perfect game during championship play was also to be rewarded by a special $10,000 prize, according to papers filed in a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the Baltimore division of the Amateur Bowlers Tour and two former franchise holders.

A favorable decision on a controversial golfing boundary, just over the Carroll County line, could spring professional Jimmy Hayes back into area competition.After Hayes accepted the head pro position at the new Quail Valley course in Littlestown, Pa., it was feared he had eliminated himself from tournament play in the PGA's Middle Atlantic Section. The MAPGA defines its northern area membership as stopping at Carroll County.Among other things, the territorial change would force a travel hardship for Hayes, 38. Under the prevailing circumstances he will have to belong to the Philadelphia PGA Section to continue tournament play.

With an 8-6 record and one final regular-season contest at No. 11 Maryland, Colgate has not been mathematically eliminated from consideration for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament. But unlike last year when the team went 13-3 in the regular season and garnered only the program's second tournament appearance, coach Mike Murphy is not holding out for another at-large spot when the 16-team bracket is unveiled Sunday night. “I'm sure there's probably some sort of mathematical substance to that, but we're 29th in the RPI, and I don't know that a team outside of the top 17 or 18 in the RPI has ever made it to the NCAA tournament that wasn't an automatic qualifier,” he said Tuesday.

On the strength of a much-improved serve-and-volley game, Mount Hebron junior and top seed David Mitchel fended off defending Howard County Cup Tournament boys singles champion Sam Booker of Howard High, 6-2, 7-5, to capture this year's title at the Wilde Lake Tennis Center yesterday."

Kentucky's vaunted bench got most of the raves in the buildup to the Midwest Region final against Michigan State, but the Spartans' bench had all the answers in a 73-66 win yesterday.The Spartans' bench outscored Kentucky's bench, 35-27, and, adding an exclamation point, put two players on the All-Midwest tournament team.Joining starting Spartans point guard Mateen Cleaves were reserves A.J. Granger and Morris Peterson. After a 19-point, 10-rebound effort against Kentucky, Peterson was named most outstanding player in the regional.

MINNEAPOLIS -- A member of the Western High School basketball sorority was honored by a national organization, but it wasn't Tennessee senior Dana Johnson.Johnson, who was thought to be a candidate for the 10-member Kodak All-America team, the most prestigious in women's basketball, was left off the team, announced yesterday.Her high school coach, Breezy Bishop, however, was named national High School Coach of the Year by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, which also conducted the voting on the Kodak team.

Despite shooting 32 percent from the field, host UMBC pulled away from Binghamton for a 59-49 win Sunday to clinch the sixth seed in the America East tournament. The Retrievers' Ryan Cook (St. Vincent Pallotti) led all scorers with 24 points. Brian Neller, who made five 3-pointers to move into second on the school's career list with 252, added 17 points. The Bearcats (3-26, 1-15), led by Taylor Johnston's 16 points, shot 34 percent from the field (19-for-56) and were 6-for-23 on 3-pointers.

- The Atlantic Coast Conference tournament has a familiar feel for the second-seeded Maryland Terrapins. After all, they have played each of the participants this season and could find themselves playing at least one team for a third time. At the same time, the tournament is very different - the schedule is more compressed - than the regular season. Preparing for it requires a new set of procedures. About the only thing like it for No. 19 Maryland this season was the Maui Invitational, in which the Terps played three games in three days in November, losing two. The team could have a similar schedule at Greensboro Coliseum if it wins tonight and Saturday to advance to Sunday's final.

Patterson Mill football coach Josh Mason and his players knew their first season of varsity play was going to be tough. That's why they are looking at the big picture and not getting too frustrated after a 0-2 start. "They know we're building a program and not many kids get to do this," Mason said. "They see the long-term picture here. Our goal is really to make a run in 2009. We have a very talented junior class." The Huskies started their season with losses to Northwestern (26-6) and Elkton Christian (28-13)

Roxann Alban Annapolis Alban, a second-year varsity player, finished second in the regionals, losing to Michelle Jordan of Broadneck, to advance to the state tournament. There, the sophomore made it to the quarterfinals before losing to Katelyn Stokes of Eleanor Roosevelt, the eventual state runner-up. "She is definitely a more solid player this year, and her emotional and mental control of her game has improved," coach Joanne Foster said. Brittany Bolster Liberty Bolster finished the regular season 15-0.

The Maryland women's basketball team's ascendancy is not in question. The team's grip on a No. 1 seed, however, is. Once considered a given, the Terps' grasp on one of four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament does not appear to be as firm as once thought after Tennessee upended LSU in the Southeastern Conference tournament championship game Sunday night. Maryland, which moved up to No. 3 from No. 4 in the Associated Press poll after LSU's loss, must wait six days to find out whether a 28-4 record, victories over No. 1 North Carolina and then-No.

The Cal Ripken World Series, featuring teams of 11-year-old and 12-year-old baseball players from throughout the world, begins Saturday at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. The series, named after Harford's retired Orioles iron man Cal Ripken Jr., features two Maryland teams and eight U.S. regional teams affiliated with the Babe Ruth League Inc., and five teams from the Babe Ruth international division. The eight regional teams are: Kennewick, Wash. Oahu, Hawaii Greenwich, Conn. Pine Bluff, Ark. Montgomery, N.J. Raleigh, N.C. St. Cloud, Minn.

The recent snow may have curtailed outdoor practices and scrimmages, but it did nothing to change the opinion among county coaches that the Howard Lions are the team to beat this season.While some squads are going through a youth movement -- Centennial and Wilde Lake each have eight sophomores, and River Hill has three sophomores and three freshmen -- the Lions return eight starters from last season's third-place county finisher.Howard's strength starts with its battery. Pitcher Kelly O'Neill and catcher Stacey Swiney, first-team All-County selections for two and three years, respectively, are among the Baltimore area's best.

It's almost March Madness time, with tournament play for some conferences beginning this week. But there's a possibility that when the NCAA and the National Invitation Tournament announce their Division I pairings, that the state of Maryland will be shut out.With a week left in the regular season, just two of the nine state Division I teams (Coppin 15-11, and Towson 14-12) have winning records, and just two others (Loyola 12-13, and Maryland 10-13) have a shot of finishing over .500 (none of the other five teams have won more than eight games)

ATLANTA - March Madness - the men's college basketball tournament starting today - is one of the sports world's most exciting events. The tournament's pressure-packed lose-and-you're-out format, the oversized personalities of the coaches and the unpredictable last-second successes and failures of superb athletes make for great theater. And like any great drama or comedy - no real tragedies here - it has a language all its own. For basketball lovers who like nothing more than to spend hours on the couch watching games, the lingo makes sense.