Sports: Tigers beat Braves; Verlander vs. Yanks today

The Tigers beat the Atlanta Braves 8-2 in Grapefruit League action Thursday.  Ian Kinsler hit a double with the bases loaded in the third inning.  Victor Martinez belted his second home run of the spring with a solo shot in the fourth. Starting pitcher Daniel Norris surrendered one run in two innings. Shane Green had two scoreless innings in relief.  Detroit hosts the New York Yankees this afternoon at Joker Marchant Stadium. Justin Verlander is scheduled to make his first start at 1pm today.

Maybin Out for Tigers

Tigers’ outfielder Cameron Maybin will be sidelined between four and six weeks with a fractured wrist. Maybin was hit on his left wrist while he was batting in Detroit's game with the New York Yankees Wednesday and the fracture was found following a CT scan yesterday.  The center fielder was the designated hitter against the Yankees because of a shoulder injury he sustained at his home in North Carolina before the beginning of spring training.

High School Boys Basketball

Battle Creek Central used a 21-0 run in the first half and beat Lakeview, 68-45.

Brett White and Juan Warren each had 18 for the Bearcats. The Bearcats end the regular season at 14-6, winning 10 of their last 11 games. They will host Parma Western in the Class A District Quarterfinals Monday at 7pm.  The Spartans fall to 6-13 on the season.

Pittsford 75, St. Philip 42 (St. Philip 7-13)

Marshall 62, Eaton Rapids 54 (Marshall 16-4)

Homer 84, Athens 67 (Homer 12-8, Athens 4-16)

Bellevue 65, Tekonsha 40 (Bellevue 16-4, Tekonsha 3-17)

Climax-Scotts 79, Litchfield 60 (Climax-Scotts 15-5)

Delton Kellogg 64, Watervliet 58 (Delton 10-10)

Union City 54, Quincy 37 (Union City 15-3, Quincy 12-8)

Hackett 72, Galesburg-Augusta 43 (Galesburg-Augusta 4-15)

Hudsonville Unity Christian 71, Gull Lake 38 (Gull Lake 2-18)

Hopkins 64, Maple Valley 51 (Maple Valley 1-18)

Fowlerville 70, Olivet 64 (Olivet 11-9)

Tonight…

Pennfield hosts Parchment.

Lakeview at Portage Central.

Bronson is at Colon

Girls Basketball – District Finals Tonight

Class A- Lakeview will face Battle Creek Central.

Class B–Marshall will host Harper Creek.

Class C- Quincy will host Union City.

Delton takes on Springport at Maple Valley.

Class D- St. Phillip will host Bellevue.

Athens takes on Mendon.

Climax Scotts will host a regional next week.

Big Ten Basketball

MSU, 25-5 overall and 12-5 in the Big Ten, wraps up the regular season Saturday as they host Ohio State.

MSU Senior guard Bryn Forbes broke the Big Ten record with 11 triples to lead No.2 Michigan State past Rutgers Wednesday night 97-66 to win their fifth straight game.

U-of-M hosts Iowa on Saturday.

Red Wings

The Red Wings and Blackhawks play the second of a home-and-home series Sunday in Chicago.

NBA/Pistons

The Pistons will travel to New York to play the Knicks Saturday.

MSU’s Conklin a first-rounder?

Michigan State All-American tackle Jack Conklin is projected to be selected No.13 overall in the upcoming NFL draft.   ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay says the Philadelphia Eagles will pick the former Spartan walk-on from Plainwell and could use him at right tackle.

Michigan Football News

Michigan has a new defensive coordinator.  Don Brown is now running Michigan's defense, replacing DJ Durkin, who was hired by Maryland to be its head coach. The 60-year-old had one of the top defenses in the nation at Boston College last season.

Defensive back Jabrill Peppers is now a linebacker - at least he will be listed that way on the depth chart for now.  Peppers has been spotted playing at linebacker at spring break workouts in Florida this week.

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh announced Thursday the hiring of Tony Tuioti as the program's Director of Player Personel.  Tuioti arrived in Ann Arbor after spending the past two seasons as the defensive quality control coach for the Cleveland Browns and    spent six seasons at the University of Hawaii.

Golf

Phil Mickelson shot a 5-under 67 on Thursday in the opening round of the Cadillac Championship, the first World Golf Championships event of the year.

Big Ten Tickets on WBCK

Congratulations to our final two winners of Big Ten Basketball Tickets on WBCK-FM dot com. Gary Baker won tickets to see the MSU/Ohio State  game this Saturday at noon. Kathy Mann won tickets to see the Michigan/Iowa game this Saturday.

Sports Star of the Week

This week's Athlete of the Week is a three-year starter for the Spartans. C.J. Foster has had a fantastic thus far, heading into Thursday's game at Battle Creek Central with a team-high average of 11.1 points per game, while dishing out just over three assists and hitting 74 percent of his free throws. Last week he led the Spartans in scoring in all three games, with 16 points apiece against St. Joseph and Gull Lake, and 21 points against Three Rivers. Foster also carries a 3.9 GPA and volunteers with Lakeview's youth program.  Be listening to WBCK and reading on line as we follow our High School Sports Stars of the Week, all this winter, brought to you by Lassen Automotive at the end of the school year, we’ll have a drawing from our Sports Stars of the Week and present the $600 Scholarship award from Lassen Automotive at  their showroom on Columbia Avenue.   If you know of somebody, or have some pictures to share, go to wbckfm.com and send ‘em our way.