You know we’re all going to be talking about it tomorrow! it’s finally the night of Caitlin Clark’s regular-season debut as a pro basketball player, and she might be getting even more notice around here, since she got drafted by the WNBA’s Indiana Fever. They’ll be visiting the Connecticut Sun tonight, the Sun reporting the game’s sold out at nearly 9 thousand tickets, their first sellout for a home opener since the start of that team, 21 years ago. Clark’s also already drawn some 13,000 fans to see the Fever, for their final pre-season game last Thursday. The Fever hasn’t been in the WNBA playoffs since 2016, but now 36 of its 40 regular-season games are set to be televised.
The Pacers’ NBA playoff series against the Knicks resumes this evening. Indiana played lights-out Sunday, running the Knickerbockers into the ground from the opening jump ball, leading by 43 early in the 4th quarter, the Pacers finally taking it by 32 points, 121-89. Can they carry that momentum to Madison Square Garden? We’ll find out— tipoff set for 8:00 tonight.
We often point out that our high school activity schedules this time of year are weather-dependent. Some schools can play baseball and softball with a bit of rain, while most can’t. So far today, North Decatur, which was scheduled to play both sports against South Decatur, says it’s putting off those games. The Chargers-Cougars baseball contest has been rescheduled for tomorrow, and softball for Thursday, both at 5:30.
Other diamond action scheduled for this afternoon that might not get in due to the weather includes South Ripley baseball at Jac-Cen-Del, Oldenburg Academy hosting Edinburgh, Lawrenceburg at South Dearborn, and Rushville at Batesville. East Central’s scheduled to travel to Columbus East, where it might not be quite as rainy.
In softball, games set for today that might not happen could be Batesville at Milan, East Central at Franklin County, Greensburg at Lawrenceburg, and Oldenburg at Southwestern of Hanover.
Up where they get paid to hit a ball with a bat, the Reds are probably begging for a rainout in Arizona, but that’s not likely. Hunter Greene’s set to take the mound for Cincinnati, Slade Cecconi for the Diamondbacks. We’ll have the broadcast beginning tonight at 9:10, on the Sports Voice, 103.9 FM, WRBI.
On the local high school diamonds Monday, lots of action– In softball, Rising Sun’s now won its last 5 games by a combined 59-0… the Shiners’ latest victims, the South Ripley Raiders, 12-0. The rest of the week’s initial scores included Milan getting by Trinity Lutheran 5-4, East Central blanking Greensburg 1-0, Triton Central putting it to Batesville 10-6, and North Decatur ripping South Decatur 20-2. Baseball Monday— Southwestern of Hanover topped Milan 7-2, Greensburg all over Connersville 13-3, Franklin County shut out Rushville 3-0, East Central blasted Lawrenceburg 11-1, Batesville beat South Dearborn 8-5, Oldenburg lost to Triton Central in 8 innings, 3-2, and South Decatur beat North Decatur 10-1.
There’s been late-season high school tennis the last few days– Janae and Mya Comer of Greensburg winning the EIAC championship and all-conference honors over the weekend, beating Connersville’s Grace Kelly and Sarah Cogar 6-1, 6-love, for the league tournament title. The Comers had an opening round bye, then topped a duo from East Central to make that final match. At Number 1 singles, Greensburg’s Mary Harmon was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by East Central’s Peyton Pies for the conference championship, and each was named all-conference. The Pirates begin sectional play this evening at Columbus North.