By Greg Halbleib
Pontiac volleyball lost to Reed-Custer 25-20, 25-11.
Pontiac girls tennis edged GCMS 5-4.
One of the new opponents of the Pontiac 66ers has its first head coach. Former Illinois State and Bloomington Flex standout Anthony Slack has been named the head coach of the Bloomington Express, the new Midwest Professional Basketball Association team that begins play in January at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.
Illinois State’s Aly Dawson and Courtney Pence took the offensive and defensive weekly awards in Missouri Valley Conference volleyball. The Redbirds swept the weekend with home wins over Loyola and Bradley.
Illinois Wesleyan running back Maurice Shoemaker-Gilmore is the offensive player of the week in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.
The Cardinals dropped a 15-2 laugher to the Reds to open the final homestand of the season. Jaime Garcia lasted just one inning in the shortest outing of his career, giving up back-to-back home runs to start the rout, although Michael Wacha and Luke Weaver poured gasoline on the fire. The Cardinals are now a full game behind the Giants for the final National League wild card spot. Right-handers Robert Stephenson for the Reds and Adam Wainwright for the Cards are on the mound tonight.
The Cubs won their 100th game of the season for the first time since 1935 by clobbering the Pirates 12-2. Javier Baez drove in a career-high six runs including a grand slam and Kyle Hendricks threw six shutout innings to drop his big-league best earned run average to 1.99. The Cubs send John Lackey to the hill against Ryan Vogelsong for the Bucs in a match-up of right-handers.
The White Sox picked up their third straight win, 7-1 over the Rays as James Shields won for the first time in time in two months. The Rays send right-hander Alex Cobb to the bump tonight on the South Side while the Sox give the ball to lefty Chris Sale.
The Indians clinched the American League Central title with a 7-4 win over the Tigers.
The Marlins remembered pitcher Jose Fernandez by wearing number 16, then placing the ball at the pitching rubber after a 7-3 win over the Mets. The game began in storybook fashion as Dee Gordon switched sides of the plate for the first pitch in the Marlins’ first at-bat of the game to honor Fernandez, then ended the at-bat by hitting his first home run of the season and was welcomed back to the dugout with tearful embraces.
The Atlanta Falcons beat the New Orleans Saints 45-32 in Monday Night Football.
