Fighting off a triple bogey on the eighth hole and the rest of the field, Drake Hull of Rutland retained his lead and went on to win the 111th Vermont Amateur Golf tournament at Dorset Field Club yesterday.
Hull completed the final of the four day tournament with a 2-under 68, and posted a 7-under-par for the week to take the championship. Troy Evans finished second and 16-year-old Bryson Richards rounded out the top three. It was the first time since 1912 that the Vermont Amateur was held at Dorset Field Club, the oldest golf course in the country, and next year the venue will move to a first-time host, at the Country Club of Vermont in Waterbury.
The Upper Valley Nighthawks continue to tear up the NECBL, winning their fourth straight with an 11-4 romp over the Keene Swamp Bats in New Hampshire last night. The Nighthawks broke a two-all tie with a four run top of the fifth and never looked back. Cameron Alldred picked up the win, going five innings while giving up six hits and two runs, and the Nighthawks are now 20-8 on the season.
The Vermont Mountaineers were off yesterday and they'll take on the Swamp Bats in Keene tonight.
The curtain goes up on act two for Major League Baseball tonight, with the all-star game come and gone and the second half of the long season beckoning for who will be left standing to play baseball into October.
The drama will be evident right off the bat tonight at Fenway Park in Boston when the Red Sox take on the NY Yankees, and while the rivalry is not quite what it was about ten years ago, these are the top teams currently in the American League east and the Red Sox begin play tonight with a three and a half game lead over the Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. The Yanks struggled mightily in the month leading up to the all-star break, losing 15 of 21, and while the Red Sox had a much better June and passed the Yanks in the standings, they did drop three of four to Tampa Bay heading into the mid-season classic. Drew Pomeranz takes the hill for the Red Sox tonight, while manager Joe Girardi has not yet announced who will start for the Yankees.
Speaking of drama, all the world's a stage and the biggest one is at the All-England Club today with the semi-finals of Wimbledon set in the men's bracket. The first match at 8 am eastern time will feature American Sam Querrey trying to continue his Cinderella run into the final after upsetting the world's number one ranked player and defending Wimbledon champ Andy Murray. He faces Marin Cilic of Croatia, and at 10:30am the last of the so-called big four left on the grass courts is Roger Federer, who's gunning for an unprecedented eighth Wimbeldon title, and the only man standing in his way of getting that shot is Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.
On the women's side Venus Williams has already made the finals after defeating Johanna Konta. She'll take on Spain's Garbine Muguruza.
And at the world's most grueling bicycle race, a changing of the yellow jersey yesterday in Stage 12. Chris Froome yielded the lead in the race to Fabio Aru, with Froome slipping six seconds behind Aru after struggling on the steep mountain stage.
