Today's Sports

SANTA FE — After getting next-to-nothing going offensively in game one, the Los Alamos Hilltopper baseball team righted the ship to pick up game two and split a District 2-4A doubleheader Saturday.
Los Alamos scraped together a pair of runs, one in the third and one in the fifth, against the Santa Fe Demons at Demon Field, but got little else going in game one of their doubleheader.
In the second game, however, Los Alamos rallied for 6 runs in the third inning to pick up the split.
Santa Fe scored single runs in the second, third, fifth and sixth along with a 3-run rally in the fourth to win the opener 7-2 before Los Alamos grabbed a 12-2 win in the nightcap.
With the split, Los Alamos (8-9 overall, 2-1 in 2-4A) has sole possession of second place in the early stages of the district race, one game behind Española Valley (11-3 overall, 3-0 in 2-4A). Los Alamos and Española Valley face off Wednesday at Bomber Field.
The Demons (4-12, 1-2) are currently in third place. They will face the Hilltoppers in the season rubber-match April 24 in Los Alamos.
In game one, Steven Williams started the game and pitched 4 innings, taking the loss. Lane Saunders came in to throw the fifth and Connor Mang pitched the sixth.
Saunders and Collin Kitts scored the two runs in game one.

ATLANTA (AP) — What a week for Rick Pitino! He's elected to the Hall of Fame. His horse is headed to the Kentucky Derby. His son gets a prominent head coaching job.

Then he caps it off with what he wanted most.

Another national championship.

For that, he can thank 13 of the grittiest guys he's ever coached.

Luke Hancock produced another huge game off the bench, scoring 22 points, and Pitino became the first coach to win national titles at two schools when Louisville rallied from another 12-point deficit to beat Michigan 82-76 in the NCAA championship game Monday night.

"This team is one of the most together, toughest and hard-nosed teams," the coach said. "Being down never bothers us. They just come back."

More like relentless to the very end.

They're not stopping now, either. The players intend to hold Pitino to a promise he made: If they won a national title, he'd get a tattoo.

Better leave a lot of space, coach, if you want to make this a tribute to the team.

"I have a couple of ideas," said Hancock, who became the first sub in tournament history to be designated as most outstanding player. "He doesn't know what he's getting into."

ATLANTA (AP) — The hoops teams at Louisville and Michigan are used to being overlooked.

The Cardinals may be a national powerhouse, but they're still considered second fiddle in their own state. The Kentucky Wildcats are the blue bloods of the bluegrass, while Louisville settles for being viewed as more of a blue-collar school.

The Michigan basketball team knows what that's like. Football rules on the Wolverines' campus — rightly so, said Tim Hardaway Jr., given that program's long, storied history.

"We still have a ways to go," said Hardaway, Michigan's junior guard. "Football has a lot more national championships than we do."

Well, it's kind of hard to overlook either team now.

Louisville and Michigan will meet Monday night in the NCAA championship game.

The Cardinals (34-5) have lived up to their billing as the tournament's top overall seed, blowing through their first four opponents before rallying from a dozen points down in the second half to beat surprising Wichita State 72-68 in the national semifinals.

ATLANTA (AP) — The deficit was getting bigger, the clock becoming an enemy and Louisville's options were dwindling.

"I just kept telling the guys ... 'We're going to make a run. It's about defense,'" coach Rick Pitino said. "The tempo is not ours. Give them their credit, but the bench won the game for us tonight. Unbelievable display."

Impressive comeback, too.

Luke Hancock came off the bench to score 20 points, walk-on Tim Henderson sparked a second-half rally with a pair of monster 3s and Louisville advanced to the NCAA title game Saturday night, escaping with a 72-68 victory over Wichita State.

Now the Cardinals (34-5) will try and win it all for their emotional leader on the bench, injured Kevin Ware. As the final buzzer sounded, Ware stood up, grinning as he thrust his arms above his head.

Louisville will play the winner of Syracuse-Michigan for the national title Monday night. It is the Cardinals' first trip to the title game since they won it all in 1986.

"We just played super hard," said Russ Smith, who led the Cardinals with 21 points. "Nobody wanted to go home."

Cleanthony Early had 24 for the ninth-seeded Shockers (30-9), who nearly pulled off their biggest upset of all.