Are you shocked.? Look at the picture below. The Red Sox won the game 4-3 in 10 innings but somehow Mike Lowell drove in Big Papi in the 11th inning.

Game story to follow shortly.

As you may or may not have heard, the Tennessee Volunteers have dropped the UCONN women from their basketball schedule. I know this comes as a shock to everyone here in Huskyland as well as in Knoxville.

Two years ago, Pat Summitt had this to say about the rivalry:

“This is not always been, in my opinion, a rivalry that’s healthy and enjoyable,” she said. “And it’s not about the wins and losses. In the big picture, it’s been good for, in my opinion, both programs and the game. That’s why I’ve decided to continue it from our side.”

Back in January, Summitt added this:

“Whether you are playing at Tennessee or here in Hartford, it is an environment that is the biggest stage in women?s basketball in the regular season,” Summitt said. “It is exciting, and when you play against an opponent like Connecticut, you learn a lot because they are obviously very talented, very well coached.

The Tennessee sports information director said that they can’t comment on the situation until late July per the SEC. Tennessee women’s athletic director Joan Cronin released this statement:

“Tennessee has elected not to renew its series with the University of Connecticut. The Lady Vol basketball team will continue to enjoy its rivalry games with teams from the Big East, the ACC, the Big 12, the Pac-10 and other conferences. Year in and year out, we pride ourselves on the strength of schedule we play and our RPI.”

Former UCONN women’s great and current ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo weighed in as well.

“No matter who they schedule to fill that spot, it’s not going to matter,”

“I’m tremendously disappointed, as somebody who was part of the start of it, as a fan, as someone who’s had a chance to cover it. It’s bad for the game that it’s not being played anymore. It’s the one game casual sports fans were attracted to. It’s a shame all the way around. I don’t know what the reasons are, but whatever they are, they’re not good ones.”

“I can’t imagine it’s for financial reasons. If it’s for personal reasons on either side, that’s just bad, and it’s bad for the game.”

Geno Auriemma hasn’t commented publicly on the situation nor has Pat Summitt. I’d have to guess that Geno isn’t probably thrilled with this. ESPN isn’t happy either. They just got back the rights to the game from CBS for this season.

“We’re disappointed,” ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said. “It’s been an annual highlight, a great thing for the sport.”

Jeff Jacobs has an excellent column about this over at the Hartford Courant.

[Information from the Hartford Courant, New Haven Register, and Knoxville News was used in this post. No animals were harmed either.]

Amalie Benjamin from Extra Bases overheard a strange interview in the Oakland clubhouse after the game on Thursday.

Sooze and Lizzy from the ever popular Babes Love Baseball went under the bleachers with Carlos Zambrano.

Jason over at My Baseball Bias stayed up late Thursday night and wrote about some great fights in boxing.

SPORTSByBROOKS wants to be like Elton Brand.

J.D. from SporTech Matter talks about Dwayne Wade being a good guy on and off the court.

Will over at Deadspin stayed up for 24 hrs researching his new book.

Anthony from the Oriole Post has a few ideas of how the Orioles can make things better for the fans.

Cork over at Rays Index talks about David Price and years of cheesy headlines.

Jeff from Sox and Pinstripes says it’s time for the Red Sox to pull the plug on Joel Piñero.

Yankees Chick says it’s a good thing the Giambino has a lot of free time.

With Leather has some updates on Amanda Beard and her Playboy spread.

And your favorite part of the salute and mine.

Fitzy from the Townie News brings you his weekly “Wicked Pissah” webcast. He filmed this before Schilling’s gem on Thursday. As always, the video is NSFW.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU-nzKXYZNY[/youtube]

Julio Lugo had a lead-off homerun to start the game and J.D. Drew added 2 homeruns and 7 rbi’s in support of Josh Beckett, as the Sox beat the Diamondbacks 10-3 on Friday night. It was a complete turnaround from the Oakland series as the bats came alive.

For Drew you have to wonder if it was facing National League pitching again or just the friendly face of his younger brother, Stephen, who is the shortstop for the Diamondbacks. Whatever it was, I hope this is the start of him breaking out of his slump. He was 3 for 5 tonight, with the two home runs. He started out the game with 17 rbi and finished the night up at 24 rbi.

Even though Lugo had just the one hit, it was the lead-off homerun, off of Doug Davis, which got the runs started for the Sox the hot Arizona night. Manny almost added a homerun of his own when he crushed a ball that went foul. He was retired via the strikeout.

Beckett cruised through the first two innings, retiring 3 of the 6 batters he faced on strikeouts.

The Red Sox struck for 3 runs in the 3rd inning when Drew hit the first of his two homeruns. Lugo led off the inning with a walk. Oddly, Davis threw a pitch behind him. I’m not sure as to why because Lugo didn’t showboat or watch the homerun. Davis then retired Dustin Pedroia and Big Papi. Manny followed the outs with a single and came around to score when Drew crushed the homerun 414 feet (wall was 413 feet away). The HR gave the Sox a 4-0 lead. It was his first homerun since April 22nd.

Arizona managed to get a run back in their half of the 3rd inning. Alberto Callaspo led off with a single and went to second on a Chris Synder single. Julio Lugo ended up tagging out Callaspo at second when he never threw the ball back to Beckett and Callaspo never called time when he got up to dust himself off. Davis sacrificed Synder to second and he came around on an Eric Byrnes single, cutting the deficit to 3 runs at 4-1.

The Red Sox got that run right back in the 4th for Beckett. After Beckett and Lugo made the first two outs of the inning, Pedroia drew a walk and went to second on a Big Papi single. Manny drove in Pedroia with a single giving the Red Sox their 4 run lead back.

Beckett was still cruising right along as he set down all nine batters he faced in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings, 3 via the strikeout again.

The Sox gave Beckett an 8 run cushion to work with after scoring 4 runs in the 6th inning. After a Lugo groundout, Pedroia reached on an infield single. Big Papi got Pedroia to third base on a double to right. Pedroia scored on a bad throw from the right fielder Byrnes. Manny got hit by a Edgar Gonzalez fastball in the wrist. He was ok and remained in the game at the time. He was replaced by Eric Hinske in the 7th inning. Drew brought them both home with his second 3 run homer of the game, making it 9-1.

Arizona managed a run of their own in the 7th inning. Orlando Hudson led off with a double and went to third on a Conor Jackson groundout. Stephen Drew grounded into a fielder’s choice to Beckett that scored Hudson when Jason Varitek dropped the ball in a rundown with Hudson.

Drew added his 7th rbi of the game when he drove in Hinske with a double. Hinske had gotten on with 2 outs on a single. This made the score 10-2.

Beckett allowed a homerun to pinch-hitter Miguel Montero in the 8th for the final run of the game. Beckett was outstanding again as he went 8 innings, allowing 5 hits, 3 runs (2 earned) and he struck out 8 Diamondbacks on an economical 93 pitches. The win was his 9th of the season. The last Red Sox pitcher to win his first nine decisions was some guy named Roger Clemens. Jose Contreras was the last pitcher in MLB to win his first nine decisions.

Julian Tavarez looks to keep the ship floating in the right direction as he takes the hill against Micah Owings on Saturday night. Mike Timlin is set to return from the DL and a corresponding roster move has to be made.

UCONN’s very own Lawrence Day, a senior catcher for the Huskies, is your Mister Irrelevant for the MLB draft. He was selected with the 1,453 pick in the 50th round by the New York Yankees.

You can see more about Day over at UConnHuskies.com

Also, UCONN pitcher, Jim Tarsi was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 12th round.

I was just over at UConnHuskies.com and saw this. I can’t believe that the Pat Summitt doesn’t want to play us anymore. Is she scared because of the incoming recruiting class or something. I am just shocked. Maybe the players are a little happier about this.

“After sending a contract signed by the University of Connecticut to the University of Tennessee earlier this year for the next two games of our women’s basketball series (2007-08 and 2008-09), we were notified by their athletic administration that the Tennessee women’s basketball program would not be signing this contract and has made the decision to terminate the series between our institutions.

We are disappointed for UConn fans, Tennessee fans and women’s basketball fans in general who look forward to this annual event featuring the greatest women’s basketball rivalry in the nation, as recently selected by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).

We are pleased to maintain our outstanding relationship with the Southeastern Conference as we will be playing two of their member institutions during each of the next two seasons. We have finalized a two-game extension with LSU, a 2007 NCAA Final Four participant. In addition, earlier this year we signed a two-year contract with South Carolina.”

Hopefully, there will be more about this in the morning but Jim Calhoun, UCONN’s Men’s Basketball Coach said this on a TV broadcast here in Connecticut tonight.

“Tennessee and UConn clearly, clearly are the best two coaches in women’s college basketball and that is the best game every single year,” he said. “To give it up over some, I’m sure, small detail, is ridiculous. In my opinion, the game should be played every year.”