Sports

Gavin Lux is a key contributor in Dodgers' rout of Nationals

Published

2 years ago

April 24, 2024

Press Room

Gavin Lux is a key contributor in Dodgers' rout of Nationals

WASHINGTON —

Back in the spring, Gavin Lux’s biggest problem was throwing the ball.

Then the regular season started, and the Dodgers’ once highly touted infielder suddenly looked unable to hit.

A month into his return from missing 2023 with a knee injury, Lux arrived at Nationals Park this week with just nine hits in 19 games, a .148 batting average that ranked 10th-worst in the majors among hitters with 50 at-bats, and a seemingly dwindling amount of time to reaffirm his place as a core member of the team.

Manager Dave Roberts hadn’t lost faith in Lux, the former first-round draft pick who underwent knee ligament surgery last March after a spring training injury.

But Lux’s own self-belief seemed to be wavering, after his defensive struggles in camp this year cost him his starting shortstop spot, and his poor start at the plate raised questions about his role as the regular second baseman near the bottom of the lineup.

“Baseball is so much mental,” Lux said

Which is why, in an 11-2 Dodgers win over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night, Lux’s pair of ground-ball singles felt like something much more important to the trajectory of his season.

In a nine-run beatdown that featured four hits each from Mookie Betts and Will Smith, three doubles from Shohei Ohtani — who continues to lead the majors in batting average (.371), slugging percentage (.695) and OPS (1.128) — and a first career win for rookie pitcher Landon Knack, Lux wasn’t exactly the star of the night.

His first single came on a bouncing ball the other way in the second inning, finding a hole through the left side of the infield for just his third hit in the last two weeks.

His second knock was courtesy of even quieter contact, with Lux pulling a ground ball that bounced five times before evading the diving glove of second baseman Luis García Jr.

Still, in what was his first two-hit game since the opening week of the season, Lux’s hits carried a weight of significance.

He came around to score his first time on base, helping the Dodgers jump to an early 3-0 lead. Then, he all but ended the game with his two-out hit in the fifth, driving in a pair of runs — his first RBIs since April 13 — to turn a 4-2 nailbiter in a comfortable four-run Dodgers lead.

“That second hit with two outs was huge,” Roberts said. “That was a back-breaker for them.”

More than that, it was the first time in weeks — if not all season — Lux looked like the steady contributor he had been before his injury in 2022, coupling his improved defense at second (where he has yet to commit an error this year) with his once-signature ability to hit the ball to all parts of the field.

“I’d like to think today was something he could build on going forward,” Roberts said. “It was a really good step in the right direction.”

It was the kind of night Dodgers coaches had sensed was coming from the Lux; optimistic that despite his poor numbers — Lux also entered the game with 16 strikeouts, six walks and an OPS of just .388, seventh-worst in the majors — his swing was finally starting to trend positively.

During batting practice sessions in Washington on Tuesday (when Lux was off in the Dodgers’ series-opener) and Wednesday, Lux started hitting more line drives consistently to left field — a sign to hitting coach Aaron Bates he was rediscovering his pre-injury mechanics.

“He’s getting his feels back and seeing, mobility-wise, what he’s capable of doing,” Bates said, noting the difficult physical recalibration that comes with the torn ACL Lux suffered last year. “He’s a twitchy guy. So when’s comfortable staying on fastballs the other way, or staying through something soft [to the pull side], that’s what you want to look for.”

Lux had also been trying to reframe his mindset. He knew there would be rust after a year spent in rehabilitation mode. But as his early-season slump stretched into its fourth week, he tried to treat any little positive, such as a hard-hit out or clean defensive plays at second, as needed sources of self-belief.

“Especially when you’re slumping, you just trying to keep building momentum and then hopefully bring it into the next day,” said Lux, who has still started all but one game against opposing right-handed pitchers. “It’s a tough mental game, so you just gotta keep rolling.”

The Dodgers are giving Lux continued leeway to try and gain a head of steam.

Before the game, Roberts praised Lux’s work ethic, and said he wanted the infielder to get 150 plate appearances before making a sweeping evaluation about his game.

“Given that he hasn’t played in a year, I don’t think that any less is a fair gauge,” Roberts said. “I just don’t. It’s almost in line with a rookie. Not to say that he’s a rookie because he’s clearly not. But … you need a sample.”

By the end of Wednesday night, Lux was up to 72 plate appearances. And after most of the early ones had been mostly forgettable, he finally enjoyed one game of productive reprieve.

“You just got to keep going with it,” Lux said. “It’ll eventually even out.”

Sports

Deion Sanders mourns loss of Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder: ‘One of my favorites’

Published

7 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Deion Sanders mourns loss of Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder: ‘One of my favorites’

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Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Dominiq Ponder died this weekend, the team’s head coach Deion Sanders confirmed on Sunday with a social media post.

“God please comfort the Ponder family, friends and loved ones,” Sanders wrote on social media. “Dom was one of my favorites! He was Loved, Respected & a Born Leader. Let’s pray for all that knew him & had the opportunity to be in his presence. Lord you’re receiving a good 1. Comfort us Lord Comfort us.”

Ponder was 23 years old.

Details of Ponder’s death are not yet known.

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders watches his team warm up before an NCAA college football game against TCU Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, in Fort Worth, Texas. (Tony Gutierrez/AP Photo)

Ponder, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound signal caller, joined the Buffaloes and “Coach Prime’s” program in 2024 after spending time at Bethune-Cookman before making his way to Boulder.

Last season, Ponder played just two games for the Buffaloes while serving in his backup role. He recorded two rush attempts and one pass attempt.

The Opa Locka, Fla., native also received tribute from a fellow quarterback with the Buffaloes, Colton Allen.

Bethune-Cookman QB Dominiq Ponder takes a snap during the Wildcats’ spring game Saturday, April 22, 2023, at Daytona Stadium. (IMAGN)

“Dom, you were a blessing to so many people,” Allen wrote on Instagram. “You had a presence about you that just made everything better. You brought so much joy to me and everyone around you. I’m grateful for every lift, every practice, every rep, every conversation we got to share. I’ll carry those with me for the rest of my life.”

Ponder was going to be a part of Colorado’s spring practices, which are set to begin on Monday. It’s unknown if Sanders will postpone the start due to Ponder’s passing.

Ponder also received a tribute from the University of Central Florida.

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders watches his players warm up before an NCAA college football game against Utah, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (Tyler Tate/AP Photo)

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“Our prayers are with Dominiq and the Ponder family along with all in the Colorado football program,” the university’s football account on X wrote.

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Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.

Sports

No. 2 UCLA women dominate rival USC to finish Big Ten play undefeated

Published

8 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

No. 2 UCLA women dominate rival USC to finish Big Ten play undefeated

Sunday was “Senior Night” for the USC women’s basketball team at Galen Center, but it was the other team’s seniors who stole the show.

Gabriela Jaquez scored 14 points, Kiki Rice had 11 points and four assists and Lauren Betts had 15 rebounds and five assists as UCLA wrapped up the regular season with a 73-50 victory over its rival and finished undefeated in conference play for the first time since going 18-0 in the Pac-10 in 1998-99 under Kathy Olivier.

Having already clinched the regular-season title, UCLA became the first team to navigate the Big Ten schedule without a loss since Maryland in 2014-15.

“These are two elite programs, we knew it would be different tonight, we knew they’d come with fire,” said UCLA coach Cori Close, who improved to 9-4 against the Trojans since counterpart Lindsay Gottlieb started at USC in 2021. “We knew we’d have to do it with our defense, our rebounding and by taking care of the ball.”

It was the Bruins’ 22nd consecutive win, one shy of the record they set last season. Since their lone loss to then-No. 4 Texas on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas, they have won by 20 or more points 17 times.

Ranked second in the nation in both the Associated Press and coaches’ polls behind defending national champion Connecticut (30-0), the Bruins earned the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament in Indianapolis and got a bye into Friday’s quarterfinals.

Charlisse Leger-Walker, nicknamed “X-ray vision” by teammates, equaled her season high with 20 points for the Bruins (28-1, 18-0) while Gianna Kneepkens added 14 points and five assists.

“Anytime we play together we know we can win,” Leger-Walker said. “We did a good job looking into the scout. Every game we just think about going 1-0. People scouting us know that all five players on the court can score the ball.”

UCLA center Lauren Betts, left, controls the ball in front of USC forward Vivian Iwuchukwu during the first half Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

UCLA held USC to 27% shooting in the teams’ first meeting — a 34-point Bruins victory at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 3 behind Betts’ 18 points. It was USC’s most lopsided loss under coach Lindsay Gottlieb. On Sunday, USC shot 39% and was only three for 19 from three-point range.

“Going undefeated [in conference] is a great step in the right direction towards what we want to accomplish,” said Jaquez, who appreciated the flowers she received before the game from USC. “I love this rivalry. It’s super fun to play against them and it was nice that they honored us too.”

UCLA jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first five minutes and carried a 19-11 advantage into the second quarter. The Bruins widened the gap to 18 points by halftime, holding the Trojans scoreless for the last 3:08.

USC (17-12, 9-9) opened the second half on an 11-2 run but gave up 14 second-chance points and allowed 22 offensive rebounds.

UCLA guard Kiki Rice, front, and forward Angela Dugalic celebrate as USC guard Kennedy Smith walks away.

“If we get more possessions than our opponent we’re most likely going to win,” Close said. “We didn’t allow one basket on an out-of-bounds play and they lead the conference in that.”

Freshman guard Jazzy Davidson, USC’s leading scorer, got into early foul trouble but still finished with 12 points. She was held to 10 points on four-for-15 shooting in the first meeting.

“It was a great crowd, we were in the fight but we didn’t rebound or shoot well enough,” Gottlieb said. “We wanted to keep them out of our paint. We swarmed Betts, double-teamed her and got it out of her hands but other people scored.”

Londynn Jones, who spent three seasons in Westwood (playing in 108 straight games) before transferring to USC for her senior year, was held to six points in the team’s first meeting and nine points (on four-of-10 shooting) in the rematch. The Trojans’ other senior, Kara Dunn, was held scoreless in the first half and finished with eight points.

“I love Londynn,” Close said. “We think she looks better in blue, but we love her and I told her that. I appreciate all she gave to our programs.”

Asked if this is the best team she has ever coached, Close had a one-word answer.

“Yes.”

Sports

Israeli national gymnastics team suspends all activities after Iranian counter-attack

Published

19 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Israeli national gymnastics team suspends all activities after Iranian counter-attack

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Israel’s national gymnastics team has suspended all training and team activities amid the recent Iranian counter-attack on the country following the U.S.-assisted strikes on Iran.

The Israel Gymnastics Federation (IGF) provided a statement to Fox News Digital announcing the violence has caused “unavoidable disruptions.”

“The current security situation in our region has resulted in unavoidable disruptions to our regular training schedule and has created significant uncertainty regarding the national teams’ professional plans, particularly as we are at the outset of the international season,” the statement read.

“At this time, all training activities have been temporarily suspended, pending approval from the relevant authorities to safely resume operations. Naturally, the suspension of training and the closure of airspace are causing considerable stress and concern. However, the safety and well-being of our gymnasts and professional staff remain our highest priority. We sincerely hope for safer and calmer days ahead, when we can focus solely on sport.”

A source within the team told Fox News Digital on Saturday that the gymnasts have been moving between bomb shelters since Iran’s counterstrikes began.

Israel’s gymnastics team is considered one of nation’s strongest Olympic programs alongside its Judo and sailing teams. The team is only a week removed from a successful trip at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Germany, where the country’s star Artem Dolgopyat won the gold medal in floor gymnastics.

Now, the team will have to seek safety until the attacks are over.

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has directed all U.S. government employees and their family members to continue to shelter in place either in or near their residences as Iran continues to fire missiles at Israel.

Additionally, the embassy announced that due to the security situation, it would be closed on March 2, and did not give an estimate on when it would be reopening. The closure includes consular sections in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The embassy also said it is “not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel.” It noted that Ben Gurion Airport remains closed and there there are neither commercial nor charter flights operating from the airport.

On Friday, ahead of the launch of Operation Epic Fury, the embassy gave all non-essential workers permission to leave Israel, with reports that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee urged those looking to leave to do so as soon as possible.

Iranian airstrikes killed at least eight Israelis on Sunday as Tehran’s latest missile barrage landed just miles from Jerusalem.

The strikes landed in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh. Initial reports said four people were killed when missiles landed in a residential area on Sunday, but that death toll rose to eight, according to Israel’s national emergency service.

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Iran’s military has carried out counterattacks against Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East after a joint U.S.-Israeli strike killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.

The strikes also killed several other top Iranian leaders, including the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

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Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens. Jackson’s reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.