UCONN football started it’s fall practice on Monday with pretty much a full roster. The biggest injury is to wide receiver Ellis Gaulden. He was injured during the spring and just had a screw removed from his foot. Also freshman tight end Yianni Apostolakos and fullback Anthony Sherman will be very limited for a while in practice. Apostolakos is recovering from an injury he suffered in baseball and may not see time until October. He could end up being redshirted. Notre Dame transfer Zach Frazier has to sit out this year because of transferring. While Edsall has said there is no favorite for the job, I think it’s Lorenzen’s to lose. The first game of the year is September 1st at Duke.

This is the third year in a row that head coach Randy Edsall has had a quarterback opening to start training camp. Last year’s starter, D.J. Hernandez has moved to wide receiver. Competing for the job are Juco transfer Tyler Lorenzen, Dennis Brown and freshman Cody Endres

John Altavilla from the Hartford Courant writes about UCONN freshman Lorin Dixon finding out about what college life is all about. While she thought she might go unrecognized in her summer classes, one of her professors announced that there was 3 women’s basketball players in the class. It’s a really good article on her adjustments from high school to college.

The UCONN women have already secured two oral commitments from recruits for next season. They are Tiffany Hayes (Winter Haven, FL) and Caroline Doty (Germantown, PA). Head coach Geno Auriemma has also offered scholarships to Heather Buck (Stonington, CT), Elena Delle Donne (Wilmington, DE) and Chelsey Lee (Miami, FL).

The athletic department also announced the exhibition games for the UCONN women’s team. They will play the US National team on November 2nd and Division II National Champion Southern Connecticut State University on November 6th. Both games will be held at Gampel Pavilion on the Storrs campus. Former Huskies Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Swin Cash are expected to be on the National team.

Mike Anthony from the Hartford Courant has a good article about what sophomore Doug Wiggins has done to help himself compete for a starter position or at least a spot in the guard rotation. With A.J. Price and Jerome Dyson the likely starters, Wiggins will have to compete with incoming freshman Donnell Beverly.

If you stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, you saw the Red Sox bullpen hold off the Angels in a 9-6 win. The Sox bullpen was outstanding while the normally dependable Halos bullpen struggled last night. Mike Lowell and Dustin Pedroia got the Sox rolling with some timely hitting. Lowell had 3 doubles last night. Jon Lester struggled mightily last night as well but so did his counterpart Dustin Moseley. All told, the Red Sox win coupled with the Yankees loss, puts the lead in the AL East at 6 games. Last night also marked the end of the West Coast games for the Sox and they couldn’t have returned to the right coast at a better time as the God awful humidity has left us. Let’s take a look at the headlines and happenings from the Boston and Los Angeles media on the much needed off day for the Sox.

Loose change for Sox [Boston Globe]

Pedroia breaks tie in seventh with homer [LA Times]

Sox avert sweep: Pedroia blast sinks Los Angeles [Boston Herald]

Angels lose to Boston 9-6 [The Orange County Register]

‘Pen to the rescue [Pro Jo]

No heavenly comeback [LA Daily News]

Pedroia Power Carries Sox [Hartford Courant]

For Scioscia, it’s all about where they are going [LA Times]

Shoulder keeps Ortiz out [Boston Globe]

Anderson, Matthews back Bonds [LA Daily News]

More not good for Lester [Boston Herald]

Drew still a mystery to Sox [Pro Jo]

Medical report on Rivera is encouraging [LA Times]

Ortiz: Pained Look [Hartford Courant]

Curt Schilling provides an update about Pete Despain’s surgery and a few other things. [38 Pitches]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, Hartford Courant, LA Times, The Orange County Register and LA Daily News websites.

Powered by Mike Lowell’s four hits, three hits including a huge homerun by Dustin Pedroia and some solid relief outings from the bullpen the Red Sox were able to salvage a win in the final game of the three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels, 9-6. The bullpen work provided by Mike Timlin, Hideki Okajima, Eric Gagne` and Jonathan Papelbon was huge because starter Jon Lester managed to only get through 3 1/3 innings. Julian Tavarez also pitched but he was a little shaky in his inning and a third.

The game went back and forth between the two teams for a while until the Sox decided to take over. In the seventh, Justin Speier relieved Darren Oliver for Angels and he was greeted by Pedroia’s third hit of the night a solo homerun to give the Sox a 7-6 lead. The Sox threatened for more with two out J.D. Drew singled and Lowell walked but Jason Varitek fouled out to end the inning. It was the fourth and final lead change of the night.

Facing reliever Scot Shields to lead off the eighth, Coco Crisp, who came on defensively in the 7th, struck out but reached first on a passed ball by Jeff Mathis. Brandon Moss singled to center, for his first major league hit, to move Crisp to second. With Julio Lugo up in a sacrifice situation the Angels tried to run a rotation play designed as a pick off and Shields threw the ball in centerfield allowing Crisp to go to third and Moss to second. Lugo then hit a sac fly to left to score Crisp and give the Sox an 8-6 lead. Pedroia grounded out to second and to move Moss to third, Kevin Youkilis was hit by a pitch on his left hand to put runners on the corners. It was the 11^th time this year that Youk has been hit. Moss would score on a wild pitch by Shields to make it 9-6 as Youkilis also advanced to second with Manny Ramirez hitting. He would fly out to center to end the inning.

The game started ugly for the Sox, when Lugo got singled to start the game. But he ended up getting picked off of first when he did one of his famous start to steal and go back routines. This is at least the third time I’ve seen him picked off like this and it took any chance of anything happening in the top of the first and flushed it.

In stayed ugly in the bottom of the first as Reggie Willits singled off of Lester, he went to third on a single by Chone Figgins. Drew tried to throw out Willits but the ball skipped by Lowell and Figgins was able to advance to second on the Drew error. The Angels took a 1-0 lead when Orlando Cabrera grounded to Lowell to score Willits. Lowell looked Figgins back and threw out OC but Figgins broke for third and Youkilis gunned him down for a very unusual 5-3-5 double play. The Sox were able to escape the inning with the just the one run scoring.

The Halos added a pair of runs in the second inning off of Lester as Garrett Anderson and Gary Matthews, Jr. had back-to-back singles, Pedroia made a nice play on a line out by Mathis, but then Eric Aybar singled to left to score Anderson and it was 2-0. Willits, who sleeps in a batting cage, got an infield hit for his second hit of the night to load the bases and then Figgins followed with a sacrifice fly to center to score Matthews and it was 3-0 Halos. Lester was able to get out of the jam by getting Cabrera to pop out to end the inning.

The Sox got on the board in the top of the fourth, when they decided it was time for their own hit parade. Pedroia and Youkilis both had singles, Ramirez hit a double that scored both of them to cut the lead to 3-2, Drew then gapped a double to score Manny and tie the game at 3-3 with no one out. Lowell got the Beantowners 5^th consecutive hit when he double to the left centerfield gap that brought Drew home to give the Sox a 4-3 lead. Lowell moved to third as Varitek grounded out to second, Wily Mo Pena popped out to second for the second out and Moss grounded out to Cabrera to end the inning.

Lester got himself into trouble again in the fourth when with one out he issued back-to-back walks to Aybar and Willits. They then pulled off a double steal and Figgins chased him from the game when he doubled to rightfield to score both runners and give the Angels a 5-4 lead. Terry Francona brought in Tavarez to try to put out the fire. Cabrera then lined into an unassisted double play to Pedroia that ended the inning.

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