Tuesday’s Sports in Brief
BASEBALL
BOSTON (AP) — Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi had surgery Tuesday to remove a loose body in his right elbow.
The arthroscopic procedure was performed by Yankees head team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Boston said Eovaldi is expected to return to pitching within six weeks.
A 29-year-old right-hander, Eovaldi had similar surgery on March 30 last year while with Tampa Bay and made his season debut May 30. He also has had two Tommy John operations.
Acquired by the Red Sox on July 25, Eovaldi went 3-3 with a 3.33 ERA in 12 games. He became a postseason star when he pitched six-plus innings of relief and threw 97 pitches in Game 3 of the World Series, an 18-inning loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. That preserved the rest of the bullpen for the Red Sox, won beat the Dodgers in five games.
The 29-year-old agreed to a $68 million, four-year contract and was 0-0 with a 6.00 ERA in four starts this season. He pitched for the Yankees in 2015 and ’16.BASKETBALL
LOS ANGELES (AP) — New Sacramento Kings coach Luke Walton has been accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit by a former sports reporter.
“I thought he was going to rape me,” Kelli Tennant said at a news conference Tuesday, one day after TMZ reported that she was suing Walton.
Tennant alleges that Walton attacked her when he was an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors, which was from 2014 to 2016.
Tennant said Walton, whom she considered to be a longtime friend and mentor, had written the forward to a 2014 book she had written. She went to give him a copy while he stayed at a hotel in Santa Monica during a Warriors road trip to Los Angeles.
Tennant said Walton met her in the lobby and invited her back to his room. After discussing the book, Tennant said Walton suddenly grabbed her.
“Out of nowhere, he got on top of me and pinned me down to the bed and held my arms down with all of his weight while he kissed my neck and my face and my chest,” Tennant said, adding that when she asked him to get off, “he laughed at me.”
Tennant said Walton relented and she started to leave the room when he grabbed her again and kissed her ears and neck. She said he finally stopped, laughed and said “good to see you” before she left the room.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Lipscomb has hired Lennie Acuff away from Alabama-Huntsville to become its basketball coach.
Acuff compiled a 437-214 record with 11 NCAA Division II Tournament appearances in 22 seasons at Alabama-Huntsville. He has 550 career wins in 29 seasons overall.
Lipscomb announced the hire Tuesday. Acuff will be formally introduced Wednesday.
He replaces Casey Alexander, who went 113-84 in six seasons before leaving to take over at Belmont. Lipscomb reached the NCAA Tournament in 2018 and was the NIT runner-up this past season.
“I understand the tradition that exists with Lipscomb basketball and I will do everything I can to continue to build upon that tradition,” Acuff said in a statement.
His hiring was announced on the same day Lipscomb held an introductory news conference for new women’s basketball coach Lauren Sumski.
ADMISSIONS BRIBERY
BOSTON (AP) — A former University of Southern California soccer coach and a California insurance executive became the latest people to agree to plead guilty in a college admissions cheating scandal that has netted prominent parents and Hollywood stars, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Laura Janke, who was an assistant women’s soccer coach at USC, will admit to creating bogus athletic profiles that portrayed wealthy parents’ children as star athletes to help them get into highly selective schools, prosecutors said.
Toby MacFarlane, a former senior executive at a title insurance company, will also plead guilty to allegations that he paid $450,000 to get his children admitted to USC as fake athletic recruits.
Janke and MacFarlane were charged alongside 48 others last month with taking part in the scheme that has embroiled elite universities across the country. Others charged include actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin’s fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli.
The parents are accused of paying admissions consultant Rick Singer to rig standardized test scores and bribe college coaches and other insiders to secure spots for their children at prestigious universities.
