The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page E4

WEDNESDAY 03.15.2006 SPORTSTHE SUN HOW TO REACH US SPORTS DEPARTMENT THE DAY'S STATE, NATIONAL AND WORLD SPORTS NEWS FOR THE RECORD DESIGN ON NATS' STADIUM UNVEILED Nationals allowed to keep nickname after MLB settles lawsuit TITLE RUN The Maryland men's basketball team is 10-4 all time in the National Invitation Tournament and won the 1972 championship. Who did the Terps beat, 100-69? Answer below BASEBALL RIVERDALE BAPTIST 7, MCDONOGH 6 100 103 1 6 10 2 RB 131 110 7 11 1 Yermal, Foss (5) and Branson; Thacher, Mnrphey (5), Bond (7), Winegardner (7). 2B: M-Jorgenson, Yermal; RD-Lydon, Brown, Thacher. PALLOTTI 11, BISHOP MCNAMARA 6 003 240 2 11 7 5 BM 000 301 2 6 6 7 Langway and Flannery; Harrison and Johnson, Allen P-Stewart; BM-Pippen, Allen. 3B: P-Flannery.

HR: BM-Harrison BOYS LACROSSE BOYS LATIN 19, PINE CREST (FLA.) 2 Goals: BL Field 3, Bonsall 2, Steele 2, Dudley 2, Bronfeim 2, Shriver 2, Boland, ur-witz, Perlow, Schamburg, Carrion, Tetti-grove; PC-Johnson, Zeller. Assists: BL-Boland 6, Shriver 2, Frank; PC-Bamoor-gian. Saves: BL-Whitman 3, Colonel 1 PC-Cage 12. Half: BL, 16-1 JOHN CARROLL 12, ST. JOHN'S-PH 3 Goals: JC Hinder 3, Scanlon 2, Raybnrn 2, Gang, Boniface, Pons, Dallom, McGehee; SJ-Catalini, Sapp, Callaghan.

Assists: JC-Rayburn 3, Boniface 2, Gang, Archer, Gang, Scanlon, McGehee. Saves: JC-Farrell 5, Pipitone SJ-Rohrer 6. Half: JC, 7-1. GIRLS LACROSSE ST. MARY'S 20, BULLIS 5 Goals: SM-Schram 5, Schindel 4, Cochran 3, Carr 3, Fox 2, Perkins, Bertrand, Ruttum; B-Soloman 3, Starke, Cafritz.

Assists: SM-Perkins 5, Cochran 2, Schindel 2, Carr 2, O'Donovan 2, Kuntz, Fox. Saves: SM-Beckstead 7, Kerry B-Roa 3. Half: SM, 10-1. BLUE JAYS Optioned Ryan Houston to Triple-A Syracuse and Vince Perkins to Donble-A New Hampshire. CUBS Optioned Carlos Marmol and IF Scott Moore to Donble-A West Tenn.

Reassigned Brian Boehringer, Carmen Pignatiello, IF Brandon Sing, OF Buck Coats and OF Adam Greenberg to minor league camp. DIAMONDBACKS Assigned Edgar Gonzalez, Tony Pena, Mike Schultz, Bill Murphy, Dong Slaten and OF Chris Young to minor league camp. NATIONALS Named Joe Hickey VP of corporate alliances. Optioned 3B-0F Tony Blanco to Single-A Potomac. Assigned OF Mike Vento and OF Alex Escobar to minor league camp.

ORIOLES Sent Franklyn Gracesqni to minor league camp. PHILLIES Optioned OF Michael Bourn and Daniel Haigwood to Triple-A ScrantonWilkes-Barre and Scott Mathie-son, Zack Segovia to Donble-A Reading. Assigned John Vanden Berg, Jason Jaramillo, Gio Gonzalez, Matt White, Aaron Myette, Jeremy Cummings to minor league camp. RANGERS Assigned Jesse Carlson to minor league camp. RED SOX Agreed to two-year contract extension through 2008 with manager Terry Francona.

Returned Jamie Vermilyea to Blue Jays per Rule 5 guidelines. ROCKIES Sent Manuel Corpas, Justin Hampson, Chris lannetta, IF Jayson Nix, OF Jeff Salazar, Mike Esposito, Zack Parker, IF Troy Tnlowitzki, Ubaldo Jimenez, Jim Miller, Juan Morillo, Sandy Nin, Ramon Ramirez, Ednardo Sierra and Judd Songster to minor league camp. TWINS Optioned J.D. Dnrbin, Pat Neshek and OF Alex Romero to Triple-A Rochester. Optioned Errol Simonitsch, Adam Harben, Justin Jones and Jose Mijares to Donble-A New Britain.

Assigned IF Tommy Watkins, OF Denard Span, OF Kevin West and Kyle Phillips to minor league camp. WHITE SOX Optioned Charlie Haeger, IF Pedro Lopez, IF Casey Rogowski and Chris Stewart to Triple-A Charlotte. Assigned Lance Broadway and Ray Liotta to minor-league camp. An artist's rendering of the southwestern aerial view of the Nationals' new ballpark. It will seat 41,000, have three restaurants or clubs and 78 luxury suites.

HOKSPORT BASEBALL Mount Carmel at St. Paul's, 3 St. Mary's at Cnrley, 3:30 Boys' Latin at Spalding, 3:30 Pallotti at Bishop McNamara, BOYS LACROSSE Glenelg Country at Bui I is, 5 company that said it owned the trademark rights to the name "Washington Nationals." "The Washington Nationals have sole exclusive rights to the name," baseball spokesman Rich Levin said. The retailing arm of Major League Baseball sued Bygone Sports LLC in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in June, asking the court to declare that the trademark does not belong to the company because its sole purpose in filing for a trademark was to capitalize on the naming of the team, which used to be the Montreal Expos.

A trial was scheduled to begin April 3. GUZMAN Shortstop Cristian Guzman received a second cortisone injection in his right shoulder after being re-evaluated by team physician Bruce Thomas. Guzman has missed the past five games with bursitis in the shoulder; he got a shot Friday. The team said he'll travel to Cincinnati in the next two days to be examined by Dr. Tim Kremchek.

The original diagnosis was that Guzman would be sidelined five to seven days. ON THE FIELD Livan Hernandez, coming back from knee surgery, looked sharp during five shutout innings for Washington in its 2-1 split-squad loss to the Marlins in Viera, Fla. "My mind and my body feel good. My knee is not IOO percent, but it's getting there," Hernandez said after allowing four hits and no walks. The teams also met in Jupiter, with Washington winning, 10-3, behind left-hander Billy Traber's five-inning, one-run start.

Washington after the 2004 season, was bought by the other 29 teams in 2002. Eight groups bid for the team, but baseball commissioner Bud Selig delayed selecting a new owner until a lease was in place. "The new owner will be involved at every stage," Bob DuPuy baseball's chief operating officer, said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. "Of course, if changes are made at the new owner's request and they add to the costs, it would be the new owner's responsibility." TRADEMARK The Nationals can keep their nickname. Major League Baseball has settled a lawsuit with a Designs for a ballpark for the Washington Nationals were unveiled yesterday by District of Columbia officials, a glass-and-steel structure clad in pale stone chosen to complement the world famous skyline of the nation's capital.

"The materials that we're using are those that in the monumental Washington, people see all the time," said architect Marshall E. Purnell, who also helped design the Verizon Center and the Washington Convention Center along with HOK Sport. The ballpark's dimensions are 332 feet down the left-field line, 377 to left-center, 409 to center, 370 to right-center and 335 down the right-field line. The outfield fence will be 8 feet from left to the deepest part of the park, just left of center, and 12 feet high the rest of the way. An out-of-town scoreboard will be built into the right-field fence.

The upper deck will extend almost to the fence. "We think there will be a lot of upper-deck home runs," architect Joe Spear said. There will be stadium seating, three restaurants or clubs and 78 luxury suites. Planners hope the ballpark will open for the 2008 season, a schedule that may be overly ambitious. "Excavation contracts have already been bid, and the steel mill order is in," said Allen Y.

Lew, chief executive officer of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. At spring training in Viera, Nationals players were impressed by sketches of the new stadium. "I like it. I can't wait.

I wish it could be ready next year," outfielder Ryan Church said. "They've got the blueprints. Now start building the thing." The franchise, which moved to DIGEST Miller's skiing future in question Bode Miller aggravated an injury to his left knee during training yesterday in Are, Sweden, and whether he skis next season likely will depend on how it heals this summer. Miller's knee gave him problems during downhill training for the World Cup finals, where he finished 18th. He skipped the recent races in Asia.

"That's going to be my top priority in the spring, getting that fixed up," said Miller, who failed to win a medal in five races at the Turin Olympics. "That was a major issue all year. It's really not that fun when you're trying to race and train and you're constantly dealing with an injury like that." "My knee is pretty sore, it just depends on how that can shape up this summer," he said, referring to prospects of skiing again when the season resumes. Miller, 28, originally hurt his knee on a jump in Beaver Creek, early this season. He injured it again a few weeks later during a giant slalom in Alta Badia, Italy.

STING (WNBA) Named Shelley Patterson assistant coach. Sabres rally over Caps, 6-4 EXHIBITION SCORES YESTERDAY N.Y.(NL) 11, Orioles 4 Cincinnati 9, Boston 7 Tampa Bay 9, Toronto (ss) 1 Philadelphia 8, Minnesota 3 Detroit 14, Cleveland (ss) 10 Florida (ss) 2, Washington (ss) 1 Washington (ss) 10, Florida (ss) 3 Toronto (ss) 11, Cleveland (ss) 5 St. Louis 4, N.Y. (AL) 3 Seattle 4, Chicago (NL) 2 San Diego 6, Oakland 5 Colorado 8, Milwaukee 5 San Francisco 3, Texas 2 L.A. (AL) 10, Kansas City 7 Arizona 12, Chicago (AL) 5 Houston vs.

Atlanta TODAY In Florida Boston vs. Orioles at Fort Lauderdale, 1:05 N.Y.(NL) vs. Washington at Viera, 1:05 Cleveland vs. Toronto at Dunedin, 1:05 St. Louis vs.

Florida at Jupiter, 1:05 N.Y. (AL) vs. Houston at Kissimmee, 1:05 L.A. (NL) vs. Atlanta at Kissimmee, 1:05 Detroit vs.

T. Bay at St. Petersburg, 1:05 Pitt. vs. Minnesota at Fort Myers, 1:05 In Arizona Texas vs.

L.A. (AL) at Tempe, 3:05 Kansas City vs. Seattle at Peoria, 3:05 Chicago (AL) vs. Colorado at Tucson, 3:05 Milwaukee vs. S.F.

at Scottsdale, 3:05 DUKE Named Larry Kerr assistant football coach and special teams coordinator. GETTYSBURG Centennial Conference named A Krissy Browning (Fallston) women's lacrosse Player of the Week. LOYOLA Big East named Kate McHarg women's lacrosse Offensive Player of the Week. MARYLAND Announced that basketball C-F Crystal Langhorne is among 48 finalists for 10-member KodakWBCA All-America team. NORTHEASTERN Announced resignation of women's basketball coach Willette White.

OHIO Announced resignation of Lynn Bria, women's basketball coach. QUINNIPIAC NEC named A Ashley Valentine (Annapolis Area Christian School) women's lacrosse Rookie of the Week. ST. MARY'S CAC named Lauren Carrier (Old Mill) women's lacrosse Player of the Week. UMBC America East named IB Melanie Denischnk Softball co-Player of the Week and Krista Kearns Softball Rookie of the Week.

VERMONT Announced that Josh Duell and Ryan Schneider have left men's basketball program. Ales Kotalik scored the winning goal with 1:43 to play last night, and the Buffalo Sabres ran their winning streak to seven with a 6-4 victory over the host Washington Capitals. Kotalik poked in his 24th goal of the season off Jochen Hecht's pass from behind the net to give the Sabres a 5-4 lead. Maxim Afinogenov added an empty-net goal with a second to play. The Sabres rallied from a 4-3 third-period deficit to match their longest winning streak of the season.

Derek Roy tied the score on a power play with 6:53 remaining, Daniel Briere had two goals and two assists for the Sabres. He has five goals and 11 assists since returning from an abdominal injury after the Olympic break. Tim Connolly added a first-period goal. Rookie Alexander Ovechkin scored his 43rd goal and had two assists for the Capitals, giving him 82 points on the season. He is the first rookie with 80 or more points since Mikael Renberg had 82 with Philadelphia in 1993-94.

Ovechkin emerged from a slump, at least by his standards. He had been held without a point for two straight games, and he's yet to have a three-game drought. The 20-year-old Russian again displayed his blistering speed when he found space on the left flank and beat goaltend-er Ryan Miller with a shot that hit the inside of the far post on a power play for the Capitals' second goal. Ben Clymer had two goals and an assist, and Jeff Halpern scored for the Capitals, who won only two games of a five-game homestand. HURRICANES 5, RANGERS 3 Doug Weight scored two goals and NHL-leading Carolina set fran- EASTERN CONFERENCE Team(Div.) LOT Carolina (S) 44 15 6 Ottawa (N) 43 15 5 Buffalo (N) 42 16 5 N.Y.

Rang. (A) 37 18 10 35 20 10 33 23 8 T.Bay(S) 34 27 4 Montreal (N) 31 24 9 The Capitals' Jakub Klepis checks the Sabres' Jay McKee into the boards in Buffalo's seventh straight victory. GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA chise records for victories, home wins and points in a season with a victory at home. Matt Cullen, Mike Commodore and Cory Stillman also scored for the Hurricanes, who earned their 44th victory, 27th home win and 94th point in the standings surpassing three records set in Hartford during the 1986-87 season. OFF THE ICE The Capitals signed 2003 draft pick Stephen Werner to a two-year contract.

The 21-year-old right wing becomes the franchise's second player from the Washington area. Werner was born in the District of Columbia and lives in Chevy Chase. Team captain Jeff Halpern is a native of Potomac A letter containing suspicious white powder triggered a quarantine for several hours at GM Place, home of the Canucks. The substance was later determined to be not harmful. 31 28 6 30 29 4 29 28 6 26 29 9 25 30 10 22 34 7 16 37 12 Pts GF GA 94 246 202 91 252 152 89 220 180 82 204 159 80 212 212 74 184 182 72 197 204 71 184 197 68 214 220 64 184 217 64 196 212 61 182 198 60 181 204 51 180 244 44 188 260 Pts GF GA 93 238 165 89 216 174 82 196 183 81 166 157 80 234 205 77 220 218 76 212 201 74 212 211 Atlanta (S) N.Y.

Isl. (A) Toronto (N) Florida (S) Boston (N) Wash. (S) Pitt. (A) WESTERN CONFERENCE Team(Div.) LOT Detroit (C) Dallas (P) Nashville (C) Calgary (N) Burnt 44 15 43 19 37 19 37 20 37 24 36 25 35 25 Colorado (N) L.A.(P) Vane. (N) Edm.

(N) 32 23 10 BRONCOS Named Rick Smith assistant general manager. CHIEFS Agreed to four-year contract with Will Shields. COWBOYS Released WR Keyshawn Johnson. DOLPHINS Acquired QB Dannte Culpepper from Vikings for second-round pick in 2006. Released QB Gus Frerotte.

EAGLES Signed TE Matt Schobel, who had been with Bengals, to five-year contract. Released WR Terrell Owens. 49ERS Signed WR Bryan Gilmore, who had been with Dolphins. GIANTS Signed CB Sam Madison of Dolphins, CB R.W. McQnarters of Lions, CB Jason Bell of Texans, and Qnentin Harris of Cardinals.

Re-signed PR-KR Chad Morton, Bob Whitfield and QBTim Has-selbeck. Were awarded CB Brandon Williams off waivers from Falcons. JAGUARS Signed OT Mike Williams, who had been with Bills. Re-signed DE Marcel-Ins Wiley and CB Terry Cousin. JETS Agreed to three-year deal with DE Kimo von Oelhoffen, who had been with Steelers.

LIONS Re-signed DE Kalimba Edwards and KR Eddie Drammond to five-year contracts. Signed TE Dan Campbell, who had been with Cowboys, to five-year contract. Agreed to contract with QB Jon Kitna, who had been with Bengals. PANTHERS Signed Shann Williams. RAMS Signed CB Fakhir Brown, who had been with Saints, to five-year contract.

REDSKINS Re-signed LB Khary Campbell. Signed QB Todd Collins, who had been with Chiefs, to two-year contract. SAINTS Agreed to six-year contract with QB Drew Brees, who had been with Chargers. STEELERS Signed Ryan Clark, who had been with Redskins, to multi-year contract. TITANS Signed WR David Givens, who had been with Patriots.

Agreed to terms with Kevin Mawae. Terps regional host in 2K Sports Classic Maryland will be one of four hosts for the regional rounds of the 2006 2K Sports College Hoops Classic, and Loyola and Navy also were chosen to participate in the 16-team tournament, which benefits Coaches vs. Cancer. Texas, Michigan State and St. John's are the other hosts.

Pairings will be decided later. The other participating schools are Alcorn State, Brown, Central Michigan, Chicago State, Hampton, New Orleans, North Florida, St. Bonaventure, Vermont and Youngstown State. Regjonals will be Nov. 7-11, with the winners advancing to the semifinals in New York.

Hingis defeats Davenport in Calif. Martina Hingis won the latest round in a rivalry with Lindsay Davenport that stretches back more than a decade, taking a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 victory in the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Calif, On the men's side, No. Roger Federer came back after a slow start to beat No. 32 Olivier Rochus, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, in their third-round match. Federer is the two-time defending champion.

Hingis, 25, playing a full schedule this year for the first time since an injury-marred 2002 campaign, won for the llth time in 25 career matches against Davenport, 29. INJURY Three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten withdrew from next week's Nasdaq-lOO Open in Key Biscayne, citing hip problems. He has played only 10 ATP Tour events since major hip surgery in September 2004. loss to the Milwaukee Wave with the flu. Celenza leads the Major Indoor Soccer League with 32 goals, one ahead of Milwaukee's Greg Howes and Blast teammate Adauto Neto, but the flu sidelined him for several days.

Blast officials said Celenza is back to practice but not at IOO percent yet. The Blast will play Saturday at California. BOXING Nick Barone, the "Fighting Marine" who lost a heavyweight title bout in 1950 to Ezzard Charles, died Sunday in Syracuse, N.Y., He was 79. Baltimore's Franchon Crews won all three matches, including a title-bout decision over 2004 champion Allana Huggins of Fort Worth, Texas, to win her second consecutive U.S. National amateur title at 165-pounds Saturday in Colorado Spring, Colo.

GOLF Michelle Wie confirmed that she will play in the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship, joining Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer in the July 6-9 tournament at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, N.J. SKIING Olympic champion Anja Paerson of Sweden will have arthroscopic surgery on both knees after this week's World Cup Finals. The Swede, who is trying to win her third straight overall title, said her left knee hurts more than the right, but the source of the pain is unclear. Anaheim (P) 31 20 12 74 189 175 San Jose (P) 31 23 9 71 197 190 31 28 7 69 194 175 Phoenix (P) 29 32 4 62 194 218 Columbus 26 36 3 55 164 228 St. Louis (C) 20 32 11 51 169 223 Chicago (C) 20 35 9 49 165 225 Note Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss or shootout loss.

The top eight teams in each conference make the playoffs, with the division winners seeded first, second and third. YESTERDAY'S RESULTS Buffalo at Washington Carolina 5, fJ.Y. Rangers 3 Tampa Bay at Ottawa Boston at Toronto N.Y. Islanders at New Jersey Edmonton at Minnesota Vancouver at Nashville Phoenix at Los Angeles TODAY'S GAMES Philadelphia at Florida, 7 p.m. Anaheim at Detroit, 7:30 p.m.

Columbus at Chicago, 8:30 p.m. MONDAY'S GAMES Tampa Bay 2, Montreal 1 St. Louis 3, Columbus 2, OT Dallas 4, Vancouver 2 Calgary 4, Colorado 3 San Jose 4, Los Angeles 3 Francona receives contract extension Terry Francona, who managed the Boston Red Sox to their first World Series championship in 86 years in 2004, received a two-year contract extension through 2008. General manager Theo Epstein called Francona "a mainstay of the organization" whose ability to communicate, ignore criticism and create a loose clubhouse atmosphere is important in Boston with its passionate fans and pervasive media. He's been everything that we hoped for." CUBS Pitcher Mark Prior will see a specialist in Los Angeles today after cutting short a throwing session due to soreness in his right shoulder.

Prior was scheduled to pitch off the mound yesterday, but he never got there. The shoulder flared up during long tossing. ROCKIES Infielder Josh Wilson is out four to six weeks after breaking his left big toe when he fouled a pitch off his foot. JURISPRUDENCE Former Mets star Dwight Gooden, 41, was arrested in Tampa, on charges of violating the terms of his probation by using cocaine. King's team rests before final push The sled dogs of Iditarod musher Jeff King took a last long rest on beds of straw in the sunlit village of White Mountain in White Mountain, Alaska, before trotting off to the finish line.

King, who is several hours ahead of second place musher Doug Swingley said he expected to be in Nome by early today. CAPITALS Signed RW Stephen Werner (Chevy Chase) to two-year contract. Recalled Jaknb Klepis from AHL Hershey. Assigned Kris Beech and Boyd Gordon to Hershey. USA HOCKEY Named Paul Holmgren GM for men's national team that will play at 2006 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in 2006.

Named Jim Johansson assistant GM. Blast's Celenza back at practice Blast forward Giuliano Celenza has returned to practice after missing last week and Sunday's Niagara..