UK Sports

Report: Ex-Vols assistant Washington to replace Martin

A former Tennessee assistant who previously worked with Kentucky offensive coordinator Randy Sanders appears to be headed to Kentucky as the new wide receivers coach.

Footballscoop.com, a national Web site that publishes information about coaching jobs and searches, reported on Friday night that Pat Washington will be named a UK assistant.

Washington, a 23-year college coaching veteran, would replace Tee Martin, who left for Southern Cal earlier this week.

Washington, who was hired as an assistant coach at East Carolina in mid-January, has submitted his resignation letter effective Monday, said ECU spokesman Tom McClellan on Friday.

McClellan said he could not confirm where Washington is headed, but said he understood it was to join a staff with a former colleague in the Southeastern Conference.

Kentucky spokesman Tony Neely said his school cannot announce a new hire until the job has been posted for a week.

Before accepting the job at ECU in January, Washington spent three seasons as running backs coach at Southern Mississippi.

The 49-year-old former Auburn quarterback was a wide receivers coach at Tennessee for 11 seasons, starting in 1995.

Sanders, the UK coordinator, was an assistant coach for the Volunteers from 1991-2005.

Men's tennis rolls past Texas A&M

Kentucky's men's tennis team, ranked sixth nationally, dominated both doubles and singles in a 4-0 victory over No. 11 Texas A&M. The Wildcats (10-0) advanced to the quarterfinals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Men's Team Indoor Championships at the Boar's Head Sport Club in Charlottesville, Va.

Kentucky will face No. 3 Ohio State on Saturday at 9 a.m.

"The doubles point was the key to the match," UK Coach Dennis Emery said. "We have struggled at times this season in doubles, dropping some tight doubles points, so it was big for us to win a tight doubles point today. That really gave us a shot of adrenaline. I thought that was the best doubles we have played all year."

Sophomore Alejandro Gomez, who is ranked a career-best 87th in the nation in singles, gave UK a 2-0 lead in the match with a dominating 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 5 singles over John Lewis. A few moments later, fellow sophomore Tom Jomby, ranked 79th, put Kentucky up 3-0 with a straight-sets 6-4, 6-3 win over Jeremy Efferding at No. 4 singles. Junior Anthony Rossi, who is ranked a career-best 13th in singles, clinched the decisive fourth point for Kentucky when he defeated Junior Ore 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3 singles.

"When we play that well in singles, especially at courts four and five, we are very difficult to beat," Emery said. "It really puts the pressure on their guys at 1-3 to have to beat our guys, who are all top-20 players."

Rogers strikes out nine in Bat Cats' win

Junior starter Taylor Rogers struck out nine over six innings and senior third baseman Thomas McCarthy hit a home run in the Kentucky baseball team's 10-4 season-opening victory against Wofford in Spartanburg, S.C.

Rogers allowed one run on five hits and one walk.

Kentucky's offense scored its 10 runs on 12 hits with Michael Williams, Lucas Witt and Cameron Flynn getting two apiece.

Kentucky will play Eastern Michigan at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Softball rallies for second win of day

Kentucky's softball team (3-3) scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning to earn a 6-3 come-from-behind win at Florida Atlantic on Friday night in the Florida Atlantic Kickoff Classic in Boca Raton, Fla.

Trailing 3-2 going into its last at-bat, Emily Jolly reached base on an error. Krystal Smith sacrificed Jolly to second, and she stole third. Alice O'Brien walked before Jolly scored on a wild pitch.

Brittany Cervantes singled before O'Brien scored on an error.

Kara Dill scored Cervantes on an RBI single through the left side, and another error allowed Griffin Joiner to score the final run.

Joiner also hit a solo home run in the first inning.

■ Kentucky's Lauren Cumbess held Wright State to two hits in the softball team's 3-0 victory in its opening game of the Classic.

College Basketball

Saint Mary's big test for Murray State

Murray State already has its conference title after winning the Ohio Valley Conference's regular-season crown. Now, the 16th-ranked Racers have their made-for-TV match. Murray State hosts No. 21 St. Mary's in a nationally televised BracketBusters game on Saturday and even the Racers are wondering just how they'll measure up against the West Coast Conference leader.

"It's kind of like everyone wants to see what we're going to do, how we're going to react. So, I mean, it's just a good test for us," Racers guard Donte Poole said. "It's going to be a very intense game."

The last unbeaten team in the nation, Murray State (25-1) finally fell to Tennessee State on Feb. 9, a loss that lingered. "The Tennessee State game is still kind of surreal a little bit," Racers Coach Steve Prohm said. "I've moved past it a little bit more."

Murray State will host its sixth straight sellout and is expected to exceed the all-time attendance record of 8,691 set earlier this season. Saint Mary's (23-4) has lost two of its last three in league play and is dealing with injuries to guards Stephen Holt and leading scorer Matthew Dellavedova. Holt did not make the 2,300-mile trip because of a right knee injury sustained in a 75-60 loss to Loyola Marymount on Wednesday. Dellavedova, who is averaging 15.5 points, rolled an ankle in that game, but is expected to play.

Baseball

Knuckleballer Wakefield retires

Tim Wakefield retired after pitching the last 17 seasons for the Boston Red Sox. The 45-year-old knuckleballer was 186-168 with a 4.43 ERA with the Red Sox. Only Roger Clemens and Cy Young had more wins (192) with the team. Wakefield, who pitched two seasons in Pittsburgh before going to Boston, is first in Red Sox history with 3,006 innings and 430 starts, and second in games and strikeouts.

Football

Bengals add ex-Raiders coach to staff

Former Oakland Raiders coach Hue Jackson was hired as an assistant with the Cincinnati Bengals. On the staff with Cincinnati from 2004-06, Jackson will help with the secondary and special teams, and work closely with the position coaches for both slots, Mark Carrier and Darrin Simmons, respectively.

Jackson was fired after the Raiders missed the AFC playoffs with an 8-8 record last season.

■ The fight between Mike Leach and Texas Tech isn't over yet.

Leach's attorney vowed to keep fighting after the Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected the former coach's appeal in his wrongful termination lawsuit against Texas Tech. The court issued its decision without comment more than two years after he was fired by the university amid allegations that he mistreated a player with a concussion.

The last word

The second-ranked Connecticut women's basketball team (24-2, 11-1 Big East) will play St. John's on Saturday with a chance to win its 100th consecutive home game. No current member of the team has ever lost at either Gampel Pavilion or the XL Center in Hartford. Connecticut guard Caroline Doty said:

"You have your crowd. You have your student section. You have your family and friends here and you want to make th em proud. So, to come out and not be able to perform, we don't really want to think about that."

(Note: A win Saturday would put Connecticut 29 games behind Kentucky's men, who set the all-time basketball record for consecutive home wins between 1943 and 1955.)