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Sports

Notre Dame is eliminated from the College World Series with a 5-1 loss to Texas A&M

OMAHA, Neb. — Nathan Dettmer pitched three-hit ball over seven shutout innings, and Texas A&M capitalized on Notre Dame’s mistakes to beat the Irish 5-1 in a College World Series elimination game Tuesday.The fifth-seeded Aggies (44-19) will play Oklahoma in the Bracket 1 final. They need to beat the Sooners on Wednesday and again Thursday to reach the CWS finals this weekend.AdvertisementThe Irish (41-17) ended the season with their most wins since 2006 and their first Omaha appearance since 2002.Dettmer (6-3) was working on three days’ rest after giving up seven runs and getting pulled in the second inning of Texas A&M’s 13-8 loss to Oklahoma on Friday.AdvertisementHe bounced back with his best performance of the season. He got Notre Dame batters to swing over the top of his sinker, mixing in a changeup and breaking ball.The Irish reached base on an error and a hit batter but didn’t get their first hit until David LaManna singled with one out in the fourth.Chicago Tribune SportsWeekdaysA daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.Dettmer, who struck out six and walked none, had his longest outing since he went seven innings against Vanderbilt on April 28. He threw 99 pitches, 68 for strikes.The Aggies converted two walks, a balk, two singles and a throwing error into three runs in the third, the first two off Irish starter Liam Simon (2-1).Trevor Werner homered leading off the fifth against Jack Findlay, and Dylan Rock later had an RBI single, ending his 0-for-14 spell and making it 5-0.Findlay, the Irish’s star freshman left-hander, had allowed only one earned run over his 14⅓ innings in the NCAA Tournament before giving up the two in the fifth.Brad Rudis took over for Dettmer starting the eighth, and Brooks Coetzee drove Rudis’ second pitch more than 400 feet over the left-field fence for his 12th homer.After Rudis walked the next batter, the Aggies brought in lefty Joseph Menefee, who allowed one hit in two innings for his second save.AdvertisementThe game was the ninth of the CWS, and all were decided by four or more runs. That was a first in the event’s 75-year history.

Lifestyle

Legendary Chicago music producer Steve Albini wins World Series of Poker tournament again

When the last card flipped and legendary Chicago-based music producer Steve Albini emerged as victor in a 773-competitor World Series of Poker tournament, he ran over to friends watching nearby.“It made me feel like a million bucks,” Albini said.AdvertisementMetaphor aside, he certainly felt like $196,089 — the first-place purse that he won.Albini — who produced mega-influential rock albums like Nirvana’s “In Utero” (1993) and Pixies’ “Surfer Rosa” (1988) and who sings and plays guitar for indie-rock band Shellac — won his second World Series of Poker tournament on Friday.AdvertisementHis winning Stud Hi-Lo hand was a five-card flush with a pair of sevens, he said.“When we played the final hand and I realized I had won it, I didn’t have a rush of emotion,” Albini said. “It was sort of like, ‘Oh, that hands over, on to the next one. Oh, wait, there’s no next one.’”The producer won his second bracelet at Paris and Bally’s Las Vegas Casino. He competed in the $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event, a multigame form of poker that alternates between Texas Hold ‘Em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Stud and Stud Hi-Lo.Players compete during an event at the World Series of Poker, June 3, 2022, in Las Vegas. (John Locher / AP)Albini plays informal cash games in Chicago with friends like professional Brandon Shack-Harris and statistician Nate Silver. He’s excited about the prospect of another Bally’s casino coming to Chicago.“Having a card room that I can get to by the Blue Line sounds (expletive) amazing,” he said.Raised on family games of cribbage and pinochle, Albini said he’s long joined casual games at casinos while on tour and is “perfectly happy playing kitchen table poker for quarters and dollars.” The one tournament he competes in is the World Series of Poker every year.He won a $1,500 buy-in Seven Card Stud event in 2018.“I was never short on chips in that tournament. I was never really faced with a tough decision in that tournament. That one felt like it was sort of dealt to me,” he said.AdvertisementNot so this time. The local rock-legend was all-in “eight or 10 times” this tournament. The odds of all those near-fatal bets falling through were low, he reckoned.“This one also felt like a fluke,” he said.If luck propelled Albini to victory, it may have come from the special buckeyes his wife gave him. He kept them in his pocket as he played.“Not so much as a lucky talisman, but to remind me of how much I love my wife,” Albini said.While it takes a lot more than luck to win two World Series of Poker events, Albini has “no illusions” about his ability to play professional poker. While he’s proud he punched above his weight, he doesn’t think he can compete with more dedicated players and isn’t willing to dedicate the time to take his game to the next level.“I have a wife and a business and an occupation and a band and two cats and a bicycle and a garden. I have things that I have to do in my life,” Albini said, adding that if poker became his livelihood, it might also become less fun.AdvertisementAs he weathered all-in hand after all-in hand, Albini said he didn’t feel emotional. Instead, he was doing the same arithmetic poker always requires of him, gleaning information from exposed cards and subtle expressions.That coldblooded calculus doesn’t relate to music production or anything else in his life, Albini said.“In order to succeed in poker, you need to be pointedly deceptive. You need to be pouncing on the weaknesses of other people and you need to exploit other people’s mistakes,” he said. “Those are sociopathic tendencies.”After playing nearly 40 hours over three days, Albini was awarded his second “bracelet,” the signature top prize of World Series of Poker events. He snagged it off the felt and rushed to show it to his friends after his victory. But the bracelet fell to the floor and a link broke off.“They’re not jewelry, they’re more like fairground trinkets,” Albini said. The producer, famous for his raw, analog style, said he might leave the prize broken to remember.The everlasting, hypnotic pandemonium of the casino floor left Albini with little sense of time as he took his friends out for celebratory tacos.Advertisement“I couldn’t tell you if it was 12:01 or four in the morning,” he said.He decided to enter a $10,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event next. It started Monday evening, and he was set to face off against a professional-filled field.“I don’t have to have any expectation of winning to have an expectation of winning some money,” he said before the tournament started.Albini ran out of chips by the end of the tournament’s opening day.jsheridan@chicagotribune.comTwitter @jakesheridan_

Sports

Caleb Swanigan, the 2017 Big Ten basketball player of the year at Purdue, dies at 25 of natural causes

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Former Purdue basketball star Caleb Swanigan has died at 25.The Allen County Coroner’s office confirmed Tuesday that Swanigan died Monday of natural causes at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana.AdvertisementA private doctor will be handling his death certificate, according to Rebecca Maze, a senior investigator at the coroner’s office.The Purdue men’s basketball account tweeted Tuesday: “Devastated. Our thoughts and prayers to Caleb Swanigan’s family and friends. The world lost a gentle soul last night. Love you Biggie.”Advertisement💔 Devastated. Our thoughts and prayers to Caleb Swanigan’s family and friends. The world lost a gentle soul last night. Love you Biggie. pic.twitter.com/spU2hQtJdi— Purdue Mens Basketball (@BoilerBall) June 21, 2022

The 6-foot-9 center was from Fort Wayne and attended Homestead High School before playing for the Boilermakers from 2015 to 2017. He averaged more than 14 points and 10 rebounds for Purdue.Swanigan was selected as The Associated Press player of the year in the Big Ten in 2017, when he averaged more than 18 points. He was a unanimous pick for both Big Ten Player of the Year and the AP All-Big Ten team.Swanigan was a first-round draft pick in 2017 by the Portland Trail Blazers. He also played for the Sacramento Kings.

Sports

Brittney Griner’s phone call to her wife to be rescheduled after US officials make ‘unfortunate mistake’ and ‘logistical error’

WASHINGTON — A phone call between jailed WNBA star Brittney Griner and her wife is being rescheduled after an earlier attempt to connect on the couple’s anniversary failed because of an “unfortunate mistake,” Biden administration officials said Tuesday.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the State Department was working to arrange a new call but did not say when that would be. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the call could not be completed because of a “logistical error” that officials have worked quickly to fix so that a new call can take place.AdvertisementGriner was to have spoken with her wife Cherelle on Saturday, the couple’s fourth anniversary, for the first time since her arrest in Russia in mid-February. The call was to have been routed through the American embassy in Russia, which was to have patched the conversation through.Cherelle Griner told The Associated Press on Monday that no call ever came. She said she later learned that her wife had tried 11 times to call her through the embassy by dialing a number that she had been given, but that no one picked up because that particular desk was unstaffed on Saturday.AdvertisementPrice said Tuesday that the problem was compounded by staffing limitations at the embassy, including technicians that are located in a third country because of Russian government restrictions placed on the embassy and its operations.A senior State Department official, speaking earlier on Tuesday said the call was supposed to have gone through the Marine Guard station at the embassy, which is staffed around the clock. but the call was apparently re-routed through a remote location that was unstaffed on Saturday.“This was an unfortunate mistake,” Jean-Pierre said Tuesday, adding that, “the Department of State is working to rectify this as quickly as possible.”Brittney Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time WNBA All-Star who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, was detained at a Russian airport on Feb. 17 after authorities there said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing cannabis oil.The State Department in May designated her as wrongfully detained, moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator. Russian state-run news agency Tass reported last week that her detention had been extended until July 2.Jean-Pierre said she had no information about whether President Joe Biden would meet with Cherelle Griner, but said: “The State Department has been in regular touch with Mrs. Griner. She’s also spoken with Secretary (Antony) Blinken. Any American who is held abroad is a priority for this president.”Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.