The Sports Report: A dream come true for Sara Hughes

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: She started as an 8-year-old Manhattan Beach Open volunteer with a dream and a passion for beach volleyball. On Sunday, Sara Hughes left the iconic tournament as a champion.

Hughes and partner Kelley Kolinske won their first Manhattan Beach Open championship Sunday, defeating Kelly Cheng and Betsi Flint in three sets to earn a spot on the hallowed Manhattan Beach Pier.

The tournament known as the “Wimbledon of beach volleyball” is the crown jewel of the domestic tour. The event that memorializes winners by etching their names into bronze plaques displayed on the pier fed Hughes’ earliest obsession with the sport when her mother signed her up to help almost 20 years ago. One of the first athletes to focus exclusively on beach volleyball in college, Hughes’ career blossomed at USC with three team national titles and two national pairs championships. On Sunday, it reached an even higher level with family and friends packing the stands in matching red shirts reading “Sara’s Squad” on the back.

“I’ve been playing beach since I was 8 years old and I’ve loved every moment of it,” said Hughes, a Costa Mesa native. “To win this with Kelley is unbelievable.”

DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Last week, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner got through only five-plus innings before being chased by the Dodgers’ dominant offense.

On Sunday, this year’s Cy Young front-runner couldn’t even complete four.

In his worst start of an otherwise stellar season, Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara was battered, beaten and eventually buried by the Dodgers in a 10-3 win, which completed a three-game weekend sweep in front of 41,125 at Dodger Stadium.

In a season-short 3⅔ innings, Alcantara was tagged with a season-high in runs (six) and hits (10).

He lost possession of the National League’s ERA lead, falling behind the Dodgers’ Tony Gonsolin after his mark rose from 1.92 to 2.19.

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Hernández: Dodgers’ destruction of Sandy Alcantara isn’t a fluke. This team can hit good pitching

RAMS

From Gary Klein: He was drafted by the Rams as a tight end, found a role on special teams and has since been switched to receiver.

Jacob Harris is happy to continue evolving.

The 6-foot-5 Harris strengthened his bid for a role in the defending Super Bowl champions’ receiver rotation with his performance in Friday’s preseason game against the Houston Texans.

Harris caught a pass on the first play, marking a milestone of sorts for the 2021 fourth-round draft pick from Central Florida. Harris played in nine games last season on special teams before suffering a season-ending knee injury. He was sidelined for part of training camp because of a groin injury.

“Going into the game, I was super excited, anxious, all the emotions,” Harris said. “And just getting that first touch of the ball out of the way was definitely helpful.”

Injuries and other issues affect initial roster decisions, but here is an updated look at what the 53-man roster could look like.

CHARGERS

From Jeff Miller: Entering the final week of the preseason, the Chargers return to the practice field Monday afternoon.

They’ll work out at their Costa Mesa training facility through Wednesday, before traveling to New Orleans for their finale Friday night.

They are coming off an ugly 32-18 loss that featured a pair of Easton Stick turnovers and Dallas scoring on two kick returns.

The next round of roster cuts — from 85 to 80 players — is due Tuesday. Last week, the Chargers made their mandated personnel moves about 24 hours before the deadline.

With three weeks remaining before the season opener, here’s a look at seven players whose immediate futures are still being sorted out:

USC FOOTBALL

From Ryan Kartje: By the time the sun set on his first day in Southern California, Bobby Haskins was already pretty convinced he’d found his future home. After a chaotic few weeks in the transfer portal, the coveted Virginia tackle clicked immediately with USC’s coaches and took to L.A. right away. It didn’t even matter USC hadn’t yet hired an offensive line coach. Haskins sensed it was the right fit.

Then came the pitch-perfect closing note to his USC official visit … courtesy of Australian rock band Men at Work.

“I come from a land down under!” Haskins belted that night in late December from a private karaoke room in Koreatown. Alongside him was former USC punter — and actual Aussie — Ben Griffiths, who joined him on the mic for a duet few in the room would forget.

Adding a new voice to an already established offensive line is typically a delicate process, one that takes time as personalities and playing styles jell. But Brett Neilon knew before Haskins even hit the refrain of “Down Under” that he would fit right in.

“We need to get this guy here,” USC’s center decided that night, before trying his hand at some Taylor Swift songs.

“We were singing our hearts out,” Neilon said.

ANGELS

Eduardo Rodriguez pitched five shutout innings in his return to the Tigers, helping Detroit to a 4-0 win over the Angels on Sunday.

The Tigers’ Riley Greene had a 448-foot homer on the first pitch he saw from Angels starter Shohei Ohtani (10-8) — the longest home run Ohtani has allowed in the majors, one that went over the out-of-town scoreboard in right-centerfield. Greene ended up reaching base four times.

Ohtani left the game with a stomach virus after four innings, in which he gave up three runs on five hits and four walks.

“I didn’t feel well all day, but I wasn’t going to miss a game because I didn’t feel well,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “My results weren’t good, but I think I just didn’t make the right pitches.”

GYMNASTICS

Konnor McClain won her first U.S. gymnastics national championship Sunday night, rallying past Shilese Jones in the finals to complete a stunning turnaround since switching training gyms last year.

The 17-year-old McClain posted a two-day total of 112.750, just ahead of Jones at 111.900. Jordan Chiles, part of the U.S. team that won silver at the Olympics last summer, finished third. Kayla DiCello took fourth, followed by Olympic floor exercise champion Jade Carey in fifth and Skye Blakely in sixth.

OLYMPICS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: The girl in a plain blue swimsuit and white swim cap just kept going. Looping overhead stroke after looping overhead stroke, Kayla Han’s arms propelled the 13-year-old forward despite the burn building in her lungs and shoulders. A socially distant, limited-capacity crowd cheered. Han knew she was catching up.

“Here she comes!” two-time Olympic medalist Elizabeth Beisel exclaimed on the NBC feed as Han inched ahead.

Han hasn’t stopped charging up the swimming ranks since her breakthrough performance at the Olympic Trials, where her epic comeback in the last 15 meters of the Wave I 400-meter individual medley B final earned more than 1.2 million views on YouTube. It was the most-watched clip of the 2021 Olympic trials and Han’s unofficial coming-out party.

Since touching the wall in 4:51.08 at the Olympic trials, swim blogs have tracked her times at every meet. Local media outlets descended on her home pool in La Mirada, located on the edge of a water park with water slides towering on the other side of the pool deck. Public address announcers rarely miss a chance to announce Han’s credentials: the youngest Olympic trials qualifier last year and multiple national age group record holder.

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1851 — The United States wins the first international yacht race. The schooner named “America” beats 14 British yachts.

1885 — Richard Sears beats Godfrey M. Brinley, 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 to win the U.S. men’s national tennis championship held at the Newport (R.I.) Casino.

1898 — Malcolm Whitman beats Dwight F. Davis, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 to win the U.S. men’s national tennis championship held at the Newport (R.I.) Casino.

1948 — The Chicago Cardinals beat the College All-Stars 28-0 in front 101,220 fans at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

1949 — The Philadelphia Eagles beat the College All-Stars 38-0 at Chicago’s Soldier Field. It’s the largest shutout in the series, later matched by Green Bay in 1966.

1950 — Althea Gibson becomes the first black tennis player to be accepted in competition for the national championship.

1957 — Floyd Patterson knocks out Pete Rademacher in the sixth round to retain his world heavyweight title at Sicks Stadium in Seattle.

1965 — In the third inning of a game against the Dodgers, pitcher Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants hits catcher John Roseboro of the Dodgers in the head with his bat. A 14-minute brawl ensues and Roseboro suffers cuts on the head. Marichal thought Roseboro threw too close to his head when returning the ball to Sandy Koufax.

1984 — Evelyn Ashford sets the world record in the 100-meter dash with a clocking of 10.76 seconds in a meet at Zurich, Switzerland.

1987 — Brazil snaps the 34-game winning streak of the U.S. men’s basketball team with a 120-115 victory in the Pan Am Games. Oscar Schmidt scores 46 points to lead Brazil. Cuba wins a record 10 of 12 gold medals in boxing and beats the U.S. 13-9 in the baseball final.

1989 — Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers becomes the first pitcher to strike out 5,000 batters in a 2-0 loss to the Oakland Athletics. Ryan fans Rickey Henderson swinging on a 3-2, 96 mph fastball for No. 5,000.

1999 — Jenny Thompson breaks Mary T. Meagher’s 18-year-old 100-meter butterfly record at the Pan Pacific swim championships. Thompson with a time of 57.88 seconds lowers the mark of 57.93 set by Meagher.

2007 — The Texas Rangers becomes the first team in 110 years to score 30 runs in a game, setting an American League record in a 30-3 rout of the Baltimore Orioles in the first game of a doubleheader.

2008 — Usain Bolt helps Jamaica win the 400-meter relay final in 37.10 seconds for his third gold medal and third world record of the Beijing Games. Bolt becomes only the fourth man, and the first since Carl Lewis in 1984, to win all three Olympic sprint events. Bryan Clay wins the decathlon, the first American to win the 10-discipline event at the Olympics since Dan O’Brien at Atlanta in 1996.

2018 — Ohio State suspends football coach Urban Meyer three games for mishandling repeated professional and behavioral problems of an assistant coach, with investigators finding Meyer protected his protege for years through domestic violence allegations, a drug problem and poor job performance.

2018 — The NCAA ditches the RPI for its own evaluation tool to select teams for the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Evaluation Tool will rely on game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency and quality of wins and losses. NET will be used for the 2018-19 season by the committee that selects schools and seeds the tournament.

Compiled by the Associated Press

And finally

Juan Marichal hits John Roseboro over the head with a bat. Watch and listen here. Nolan Ryan gets his 5,000th strikeout. Watch and listen here.