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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Gerrit Cole pitched like a postseason ace Thursday night, holding the Kansas City Royals to a single run over seven innings and sending the New York Yankees to a 3-1 victory that put them back in the American League Championship Series.

The six-time All-Star scattered six hits and struck out four before handing the ball to the New York bullpen, which dominated a tense AL Division Series. Clay Holmes tossed a perfect eighth inning and Luke Weaver breezed through the ninth, extending the scoreless streak by Yankees relievers to 15⅔ innings this postseason.

New York will play Cleveland or Detroit in the ALCS starting Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

“Proud of these guys,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We get to go play for it now and we’re excited about that.”

Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres and Game 3 star Giancarlo Stanton drove in runs for the Yankees, who fittingly clinched a spot in their fourth ALCS in eight years on the road. They won 50 games away from home in the regular season, their most in 21 years.

Michael Wacha failed to get through five innings for Kansas City, allowing two runs, six hits and a walk. He didn’t get much help from a long-scuffling offense that managed just five runs total over the final three games of the series.

“In 2023, our season ended here, you know? We didn’t get in the postseason,” said Aaron Judge, who secured the final out for New York. “I remember a lot of these guys were looking out on the field, and you know, we all kind of came together and said, ‘It’s not going to happen again.'”

Kansas City did not win a home game after Sept. 8, losing nine in a row including the playoffs.

Still, it was a remarkable turnaround for a club that went from 106-loss laughingstock a year ago to making its first postseason appearance since winning the 2015 World Series. And with young stars such as Bobby Witt Jr. signed to long-term deals, there is hope in Kansas City that this was a beginning rather than an ending.

“Feel really badly for those guys in the room,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said, “because as you know, this is seven, eight months of the year that they just pour it all into it, and give every ounce of effort and energy they have.”

New York set the tone from the start, pouncing on Wacha like it did in the series opener. Torres hit the veteran right-hander’s first pitch of the game for a double, and Soto followed with an RBI single on just the third pitch of the night.

Anthony Volpe kept on the pressure with his single in the fifth. And after Alex Verdugo grounded into a forceout and Jon Berti singled to put runners on the corners, Torres lined a two-out single to make it 2-0 and put an end to Wacha’s night.

Meanwhile, Cole only seemed to get stronger as he clicked off innings.

The reigning Cy Young Award winner retired his first six batters, worked around a leadoff single in the third and retired eight more before Tommy Pham‘s single in the fifth. Cole promptly struck out Kyle Isbel on three pitches to end that inning.

“It was a great battle,” Cole said. “Just a great battle.”

Stanton, who hit the go-ahead homer in the eighth inning in Game 3, extended the lead to 3-0 with his single in the sixth before tensions that had simmered all night — and all series, after Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. called the Royals’ Game 2 win “lucky” — boiled over in the bottom half. Volpe slapped a hard tag on Maikel Garcia at second base to complete a double play, and the Royals third baseman took umbrage with it. Players spilled out of both dugouts before order was restored.

“I just felt like [Garcia] tried to go in and injure Volpe because he was being a sore loser,” Chisholm said. “I didn’t like that. I told him that we don’t do that on this side, and I’m going to stick up for my guys.”

The near fracas nearly ignited Kansas City, too. Witt, who had been 1-for-15 in the series, followed with a base hit and Vinnie Pasquantino — who’d been 0-for-14 — had an RBI double. But with the sellout crowd of 39,012 in Kauffman Stadium whipped into a sudden frenzy, Cole got Salvador Perez to pop out to second base to end the inning.

Cole’s night ended after he got Isbel to fly out to the warning track with a runner aboard to end the seventh, a deep shot to right field that would have been a tying homer had it been hit to that part of Yankee Stadium.

New York’s bullpen did the rest.

“We’re in a good place. That doesn’t mean we’re in a great place,” Stanton said. “We’re here to win. Noone wants to be on the losing side of this. Imagine how Kansas City feels right now. Nobody wants to feel that way. We have an opportunity to keep it rolling, but that is understood reality, that we have to take care of business.”

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QB Becht stars as ISU outlasts KSU in Ireland

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QB Becht stars as ISU outlasts KSU in Ireland

DUBLIN — Rocco Becht passed for two touchdowns and ran for another score, helping No. 22 Iowa State beat No. 17 Kansas State 24-21 in the Aer Lingus Classic on Saturday.

Becht was 14-for-28 for 183 yards. He found Dominic Overby for a 23-yard TD in the first quarter and passed to Brett Eskildsen for a 24-yard score in the third quarter.

With 2:26 to go, Iowa State went for it on fourth-and-3 at the Kansas State 16-yard line. Becht found Carson Hansen for 15 yards and iced the game.

“He called a great play, he gave me two plays and let me decide and I knew we were going to have a chance to get it,” Becht said “We’ve worked on it in practice and it’s been working for us and we’re confident with it and I have trust in my guys.”

The Cyclones (1-0, 1-0 Big 12) opened a 24-14 lead in the fourth quarter after a turnover on downs by Kansas State at its own 30-yard line. Becht finished the short drive with a 7-yard touchdown run with 6:38 left.

Avery Johnson passed for 273 yards and two touchdowns for Kansas State (0-1, 0-1). He also had a 10-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

“I mean that’s the thing, regardless of the outcome we have 11 games to play,” Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said. “We have our back against the wall, but now we’ve got to reset and regroup and get ready to play.”

Johnson threw a 65-yard touchdown pass to Jerand Bradley with 6:23 remaining, but the Wildcats never got the ball back.

Both teams struggled to deal with wet conditions in the first half. Kansas State had two turnovers and a turnover on downs, and Iowa State committed two turnovers in the first 30 minutes.

“We just made some great adjustments,” Campbell said. “We saw some things different in the first game and the opportunity to make some adjustments and to have the ability to do that, to have the staff that’s been together for so long that we have the confidence to make those adjustments.”

The Cyclones grabbed a 14-7 lead when Becht found Eskildsen in the corner of the end zone with 1:07 left in the third quarter.

Johnson responded with a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jayce Brown, tying it at 14 with 14:09 remaining in the game.

Hansen led Iowa State with 71 yards rushing on 16 carries. Joe Jackson had 51 yards on 12 carries for Kansas State.

“I thought that the (offensive line) did a really great job in the second half,” Campbell said. “Our tight ends and o-line did a great job of execution and man Carson is a really great player so we’re really proud of him.”

Iowa State has beat Kansas State in five of the past six seasons.

“I think those are great wins, any time you can beat quality opponents that’s awesome,” Campbell said. “We got a long way to go, it’s only game one and there’s a lot of football left and we’re going to have to see if we’re tough enough as a program and team to go home and get ready for a good South Dakota team next week.”

Kansas State running back Dylan Edwards was injured in the first quarter on a punt that he muffed. He didn’t return to the game.

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‘This stings’: Interim Reich drops Stanford debut

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'This stings': Interim Reich drops Stanford debut

HONOLULU — Micah Alejado threw two touchdown passes and Kansei Matsuzawa made three field goals — including a 38-yarder as time expired — as Hawaii outlasted Stanford 23-20 on Saturday night in the season opener for both teams.

Matsuzawa’s last kick spoiled the debut of Cardinal interim Frank Reich, a former NFL head coach, who was hired by one of his former quarterbacks, Andrew Luck, in March. Luck, the Cardinal’s new football general manager, is conducting a national search for a permanent coach following the offseason firing of Troy Taylor.

Saturday night showed Luck, who sat in the coaches’ box above the stadium, that the ACC program has a way to go regardless who is on the sideline.

“Obviously, this is a tough loss, I give Hawaii credit,” Reich said. “They played a tough game, and made the plays they needed to make to win the game. We came in off of what I thought was a very good week of practice, and a very good six months of preparation and hard work. And so this hurts, I’m not going to lie.”

Meanwhile, Hawaii defeated a power conference team for the first time since opening the 2019 season with back-to-back wins over then-Pac-12 teams Arizona and Oregon State. It also won in its first game against an ACC opponent. The Rainbow Warriors are 1-4 all-time against Stanford, all in Honolulu.

“This stings for all of us, especially the players,” Reich said. “But we know this, the message for the team was: We put in that work, not for one game. It’s a long season. So, we didn’t get what we wanted today, but we still have a lot of opportunity.”

Alejado walked gingerly off the field after he was sacked by Matt Rose early in the second half but returned to start the next drive and finished 27-of-39 passing for 210 yards and added 36 yards rushing. Pofele Ashlock had nine receptions for 69 yards and a touchdown.

“Micah is one of the most ultimate competitors, and his competitive nature was not to let his teammates down,” Hawaii coach Timmy Chang said. “And so he wanted to play, and we wanted him to play.”

Hawaii took possession at its own 28 with 1:33 to play and a limping Alejado went 5 of 7 for 51 yards to set up Matsuzawa’s winning kick.

Matsuzawa also made field goals of 40 and 37 yards, with the 37-yarder tying the score with 2:01 remaining.

Micah Ford had 26 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown for Stanford.

Emmet Kenney made field goals of 23 to open the scoring and Brandon White mistakenly downed the ensuing kickoff at the 1. On Hawaii’s first offensive play from scrimmage, Clay Patterson strip-sacked Micah Alejado before Wilfredo Aybar recovered the fumble in the end zone to give Stanford a 10-0 lead with 7:08 left in the first quarter.

Alejado threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Pofele Ashlock to make it 10-7 with 2:19 left in the first.

Jackson Harris — a transfer from Stanford — caught a 19-yard TD pass from Alejado with 42 seconds left in the first half that gave Hawaii its first lead at 14-13. The Cardinal committed three 15-yard penalties on Hawaii’s 75-yard drive.

Stanford put together a 20-play, 85-yard that took more than 9 1/2 minutes off the clock before Ford scored on a 2-yard run that gave the Cardinal a 20-17 lead with 9:41 left in the game.

Kenney added a 46-yard field goal in the first half for the Cardinal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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UC Davis-Mercer deemed no contest after delay

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UC Davis-Mercer deemed no contest after delay

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The FCS Kickoff game between UC Davis and Mercer was declared a no contest after a weather delay of about 1 1/2 hours Saturday night.

UC Davis, ranked No. 7 in the FCS coaches poll, had a 23-17 lead over No. 11 Mercer when play was stopped with about 7 1/2 minutes left.

“Tonight’s 11th Annual FCS Kickoff has been declared a ‘No Contest’ due to rain and intermittent lightning that has continued to move through central Alabama,” Mercer said on social media. “All statistics from tonight’s game have been voided.”

UC Davis posted: “Mother Nature wins the day as tonight’s game in Montgomery has been called a no contest.”

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