Top-ranked Vandy forces deciding game

Brad French homered and drove in four runs to lead the top-ranked Vanderbilt baseball team to a 10-7 victory over Michigan last night, forcing a deciding game today in the NCAA regional tournament in Nashville, Tenn.

Vanderbilt (54-12) sent 12 batters to the plate and scored seven runs in the second inning. Shea Robin, Brad French and David Macias each had run-scoring hits, while two other runs scored on Wolverine errors.

Earlier yesterday, Vanderbilt beat Austin Peay 11-5.

College Station Regional

● Texas A&M 4, Louisiana-Lafayette 1: Scott Migl shut out Louisiana-Lafayette through seven innings as Texas A&M (47-17) beat the Ragin’ Cajuns (45-16) to force a deciding game today.

Round Rock Regional

● UC Irvine 6, Texas 5 (7 innings, susp., rain): UC Irvine led Texas 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh inning when rain forced the suspension of play until today.

Earlier yesterday, Texas (46-16) advanced to the regional championship with a 7-4, 12-inning victory over Wake Forest in an elimination game.

Texas must beat Irvine twice to reach the super regionals.

Fayetteville Regional

● Oklahoma St. 7, Arkansas 6: Corey Brown and Ty Wright hit three-run homers to lead Oklahoma State (41-19) to the regional title and a spot in the super regionals.

Tempe Regional

● Arizona St. 19, Nebraska 7: CJ Retherford drove in five runs and Kiel Roling four and Arizona State (46-13) exploded for 23 hits to advance to the super regionals.

Tennessee, Arizona in softball title series

Monica Abbott led Tennessee to the Women’s College World Series finals yesterday, throwing her third straight shutout in the Lady Vols’ 3-0 victory over Northwestern.

In the best-of-three championship series beginning tonight in Oklahoma City, the Lady Vols (62-6) will face defending champion Arizona, which advanced by beating sixth-seeded Washington twice yesterday by scores of 2-0 and 8-1.

Abbott (49-3), the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, struck out 17 in a two-hitter to help Tennessee reach the championship series for the first time. The Lady Vols had finished third the past three years.

Landis returns to racing in Colorado

Floyd Landis finished eighth in a time trial yesterday at the Teva Mountain Games, where he raced over the weekend for the first time since winning the Tour de France last year.

Landis was riding for charity, teaming with two other athletes in a four-part event in Vail, Colo., that also included mountain biking, kayaking and running.

Landis combined with Tao Berman and Andy Ames to finish third in the team challenge and earn a $250 prize, which will go to Athletes For A Cure, a charitable organization that helps those with prostate cancer.

On Saturday, Landis rode in a mountain bike race and finished 49th in the overall field, though he was fifth among those in the team competition.

"I haven’t suffered in a while," he said when Saturday’s race was over, happy he simply finished his first mountain-bike race in nearly nine years. "I figured this was a good place to start."

Landis tested positive for synthetic testosterone at last year’s Tour de France and is awaiting a decision from an arbitration panel on whether the victory will stand. If the panel upholds the positive finding, Landis could forfeit his title and face a two-year ban from cycling.

Soccer fans crushed to death in Zambia

At least 12 soccer fans were crushed to death as a crowd rushed from the stadium after Zambia’s victory in an African Cup qualifier, official media said yesterday in Lusaka, Zambia.

Fans were in a hurry to leave because the match against Republic of Congo, which Zambia won 3-0, started an hour late - the Sudanese referee arrived only three hours before kickoff, the state-owned Sunday Times reported.

The newspaper said three women and nine men were killed, all of them Zambian team supporters, and five fans were hospitalized after the accident Saturday at Konkola Stadium in the northern town of Chililabombwe in Zambia’s Copperbelt province.

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