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CINCINNATI — Down three runs in the ninth inning, the Cincinnati Reds got one-out solo homers from Jake Fraley and Will Benson off Raisel Iglesias.

Could they extend a winning streak to 13 games for the first time in a century?

Not quite.

Iglesias struck out Matt McLain and Jonathan India, and the Atlanta Braves prevailed 7-6 in an eight-homer slugfest on Saturday to stop the Reds’ winning streak at 12 games.

“I wish we won 100 in a row,” Spencer Steer said. “We played some really good baseball the last two weeks. We’ve built a pretty good culture, good bond in that clubhouse and I think we believe that we can play with these heavyweights.”

Each team homered four times, taking the teams’ combined HR total to 17 through the first two games of the series after nine were hit in the Reds’ 11-10 win on Friday night.

Matt Olson hit the 200th of his big league career and Travis d’Arnaud and Ozzie Albies also went deep off Graham Ashcraft (3-6), who allowed three long balls for the first time in 33 big league starts. Marcell Ozuna homered against Alex Young as the Braves won for the ninth time in 10 games.

McLain and Steer hit two-run homers for the Reds, and Fraley homered for the third straight game.

Iglesias, who pitched for the Reds from 2015-20, started the ninth by striking out TJ Friedl. After the homers, Iglesias got his 11th save in 13 chances.

“I never feel safe here with a lead and I never feel like we’re out of it,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “You never feel good until it’s over.”

Cincinnati’s winning streak was its longest since April 30 to May 12, 1957. The Reds have not won 13 straight since their final six games in 1918 and their first seven in 1919.

“It was quite a streak,” Reds manager David Bell said. “It went on for a while so we didn’t get used to it and that’s a good thing. It was a great streak. We all appreciate what we were able to accomplish against good teams and we learned a lot about ourselves and we became a better team. We became stronger.

“But as appreciative of the streak as we are, everything who we are and what we have in our clubhouse does not go away.”

Boosted by the streak, the Reds drew 43,498 for their first consecutive full-capacity sellouts since June 24-26, 2016, when Pete Rose’s No. 14 was retired.

“Everybody in this clubhouse enjoys playing in that type of atmosphere,” d’Arnaud said. “It was like the playoffs. Their energy was contagious. Electric, for sure.”

Michael Tonkin (2-0) pitched 2 1/3 hitless innings for the Braves, who won eight in a row before losing Friday’s series opener.

Ashcraft made his first start since he was hit by a comebacker June 8. He allowed six runs and 10 hits in four innings.

“I felt like that was one of the better outings that I’ve had in a while. It just didn’t go our way today,” he said.

Atlanta took a 2-0 lead on solo homers by d’Arnaud in the second and Albies in the third, the latter a drive off the bridge connecting the Sun and Moon Deck in right with the main concourse. Ozuna added an RBI single in the third and McLain’s homer cut the gap to 3-2.

Austin Riley hit an RBI double in the fourth and scored on Olson’s NL-leading 24th home run, his third of the series.

Ozuna’s seventh-inning homer was his 15th of the season and 13th since the start of May, and it put the Braves ahead 7-4.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.

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Purdue RB Mockobee has season-ending surgery

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Purdue RB Mockobee has season-ending surgery

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue running back Devin Mockobee will miss the rest of his final college season after undergoing ankle surgery late last week, coach Barry Odom announced Monday.

Mockobee finishes his career as the fourth-leading rusher in Boilermakers history with 2,987 yards, trailing Mike Alstott, Kory Sheets and Otis Armstrong, a College Football Hall of Famer. Mockobee also ranks in the school’s top 10 in carries with 630 and career 100-yard games with nine.

Odom said Mockobee injured his ankle late in an Oct. 25 loss to Rutgers. He was ruled out of last weekend’s 21-16 loss at No. 21 Michigan following Friday’s surgery.

“We were hoping we would get a little bit better news after they did that procedure on his ankle, but unfortunately, the injury he sustained, he’s played his last game here,” Odom said. “I sure hate that because he is such a wonderful young man, a great leader of this program and a great representative of Purdue University. The things he poured into this program and university since I’ve been here, he will go down as one of the really enjoyable, great guys I’ve had a chance to coach. We’ll be connected forever, and I know this place means a lot to him.”

Losing this season’s leading rusher couldn’t come at a worse time for the Boilermakers (2-7, 0-6 Big Ten). They are mired in a six-game losing streak and remain one of four winless teams in league play. Purdue’s next chance to snap a school-record 15-game losing streak in conference games comes Saturday when it hosts No. 1 Ohio State (8-0, 5-0).

Antonio Harris started against Michigan then rotated with Malachi Thomas. Harris finished with 11 carries for 54 yards and one touchdown while Thomas had 15 carries for 68 yards. Malachi Singleton, a quarterback, also finished with six carries for 24 yards.

Odom did not say whether he would follow a similar game plan against the Buckeyes.

Mockobee joined the Boilermakers as a walk-on from Boonville, Indiana, but quickly emerged as their top rusher in 2022.

He set school freshman records by rushing for 968 yards and posting four 100-yard games while scoring nine times for the Big Ten West Division champions. After losing the Big Ten championship game to the Wolverines, first-time head coach Ryan Walters gave the 6-foot, 202-pound rusher a scholarship.

But Mockobee struggled with fumbles in 2023, starting just four games and finishing with 811 yards and six TD runs. He rebounded by starting all 12 games in 2024 and producing 687 yards rushing and four scores. He had a team-high 521 yards rushing and 4 TD runs in 8 games this season before getting injured.

Mockobee finished his career with 86 receptions for 839 yards and 3 touchdowns and the only completed pass of his career was a TD pass earlier this season.

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NCAA sends concerns to prediction market Kalshi

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NCAA sends concerns to prediction market Kalshi

The NCAA sent a letter to Kalshi, a company that offers prediction markets on college basketball and football, expressing its concern about the company’s “commitment to contest integrity and the protection of contest participants,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by ESPN.

In the letter, dated Oct. 30, NCAA chief legal officer Scott Bearby asked Kalshi how it monitors collegiate sports markets for integrity concerns and activity by prohibited customers, who it considers a prohibited customer, whether it will report integrity concerns to the NCAA and whether the company will cooperate with NCAA investigations.

“We welcome Kalshi’s stance on its efforts to protect the integrity of NCAA competitions and to reduce instances of abuse and harassment directed at student-athletes and other participants,” Bearby wrote.

The NCAA also asked if Kalshi would ban prediction markets similar to prop bets, which the company began offering this fall.

Prop betting markets, Bearby noted in the letter, heighten “the risk of integrity and harassment concerns.” In March last year, NCAA president Charlie Baker called for a ban on prop bets on college athletes in states with legal sports wagering.

The NCAA also asked Kalshi in the letter to review language on its website that the NCAA says implies a relationship between them.

“Kalshi has robust market integrity provisions required by our status as a federally licensed financial exchange,” a Kalshi spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN. “We value the NCAA’s feedback and are working on adjusting the language on our site. We are currently reviewing and addressing their additional requests.”

Prediction markets like Kalshi have emerged over the past year and are competing with traditional sportsbooks in the betting market. Kalshi is battling multiple lawsuits by state gambling regulators, who allege that the company is violating state laws by offering event contracts that mimic sports bets. Kalshi argues that it does not fall under state jurisdiction and is instead regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency.

In March, Kalshi announced a partnership with IC360, an integrity monitor used by many collegiate and professional leagues.

The NCAA has faced an increasing number of alleged betting violations by players in recent years. In September, the NCAA announced that a Fresno State men’s basketball player had manipulated his performance for gambling purposes and conspired with two other players in a prop betting scheme. In total, the association has opened investigations into potential betting violations by approximately 30 current or former men’s basketball players.

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Canes query ACC on late roughing call in SMU loss

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Canes query ACC on late roughing call in SMU loss

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Miami has asked the Atlantic Coast Conference for clarity on a number of officiating decisions made in its loss this past weekend to SMU, including a critical 15-yard penalty in the final moments of regulation.

Miami lost the game, 26-20. The Hurricanes, who were as high as No. 2 in the AP Top 25 last month, have dropped two of their last three games and are now ranked No. 18.

Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said Miami has not gotten an answer from the ACC. It’s unclear if any explanations will be coming.

“Certainly, we’re waiting what the response is, as well as on the roughing the passer one which we certainly don’t agree with,” Cristobal said Monday. “But at this point in time, the best we can do is turn it in and hope for a better result next time.”

The Hurricanes’ Marquise Lightfoot was called for unnecessary roughness against SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings with about a minute left in the fourth quarter, giving the Mustangs 15 yards and a first down. Miami had called time out just before the fourth-and-9 play was snapped, and the Hurricanes argued to no avail that Lightfoot did not hear the whistle.

Replays showed that Lightfoot, who did make contact with Jennings, tried to hold the SMU quarterback up after apparently realizing the play was dead.

That penalty gave SMU the ball on the Miami 37, and the Mustangs went on to kick an overtime-forcing field goal.

Miami also was incensed about how a pass interference flag that would have aided the Hurricanes was picked up, and how officials missed a Hurricanes receiver getting tackled in the end zone on a play that wound up as a Miami interception in overtime.

Miami was called for 12 penalties in the game for 96 yards, compared with four by SMU for 40 yards. The eight-penalty differential tied Miami’s biggest of the season; it had 13 penalties compared with five by Florida State when those teams played in Tallahassee last month.

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