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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s happening around the area:
Bismarck-Henning graduate Dylan Dodd is up with the Atlanta Braves for the third time this season.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. Circle Nov. 11 on the calendar. That’s when Texas Tech men’s basketball will visit State Farm Center in Champaign to take on the Illini. The first matchup between the two programs who Terrence Shannon Jr. both starred for was officially announced on Friday.
➜ 2. Bismarck-Henning graduate Dylan Dodd got his third promotion to the majors this season when the Braves recalled the left-handed reliever on Friday from Class AAA Gwinett. The Braves are in San Francisco this weekend for a three-game series against the Giants, with a 3:05 p.m. first pitch on Saturday and a 3:05 p.m. first pitch on Sunday from Oracle Park.
➜ 3. Entering Friday night, Dodd had not given up a run in 1 2/3 innings this season during his two relief appearances last month with the Braves.
Lilly Long is one of six seniors on the LeRoy softball team.
Numbers game: 7
IHSA state trophies area softball programs have won this decade, with LeRoy playing Carrollton in the Class 1A state title game on Saturday. Villa Grove (fourth in 1A in 2024), LeRoy (third in 1A in 2023), Mahomet-Seymour (fourth in 3A in 2022), Unity (third in 2A in 2022), Unity (fourth in 2A in 2021) and Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond (fourth in 1A in 2021) are the others.
The baseball teams from Champaign Central and Mahomet-Seymour meet Saturday for the second straight season in a Class 3A sectional championship game.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. Champaign Central vs. Mahomet-Seymour baseball. The winner of this Class 3A Lincoln Sectional title game on Saturday moves on to Monday night’s super-sectional game in Decatur.
➜ 2. Miami at Louisville baseball. Champaign Central graduate Jake Munroe hit two home runs and drove in five runs to help Louisville beat Miami 8-1 on Friday in the first game of a Super Regional. Beat the Hurricanes on Saturday, and the Cardinals advance to the College World Series.
➜ 3. American Family Insurance Championship. Former Illini Steve Stricker is tied for ninth with partner Mario Tiziani after Friday’s first round of the Champions Tour event he helps host in Madison, Wis.
Stoplights and traffic aren’t something Addison Lucht has to deal with in her hometown of Cissna Park. But success is all the multi-sport standout has known during her high school career with the Timberwolves so far. The junior starred for the Cissna Park girls’ basketball team this winter, leading the Timberwolves to a third-place finish in Class 1A this winter and earning All-Area Player of the Year honors from The News-Gazette in the process.
Ask an athlete
Three questions with Cissna Park standout Addison Lucht, The News-Gazette’s All-Area girls’ basketball Player of the Year in 2025:
➜ 1. Three athletes I’d like to have dinner with are … Michael Jordan, Skylar Wallace and Stephen Curry.
➜ 2. The TV I most like to binge-watch is … “SportsCenter.”
➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … people that act like they know what they are talking about but they don’t.
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