BASEBALL

Ducks roll to win over Buckeyes — After scoring four runs in the second inning, seven in the third and four in the sixth, a grand slam home run in the eighth inning by A.J. Balta gave the Oregon baseball team plenty of cushion as the Ducks took a 20-4 nonleague victory over Ohio State at PK Park in Eugene on Sunday. Oregon (12-4) won the series 2-1 over the Buckeyes (8-5). The 20 runs scored were the most for the Ducks since scoring 19 against Gonzaga in 2010. Third baseman Mitchell Tolman was 3-for-6 at the plate with six RBIs for Oregon. Jeff Gold (4-0) stayed perfect on the mound for the Ducks this season as he went eighth innings with eight strikeouts, while giving up seven hits and three runs with no walks. Oregon kicks off Pac-12 Conference play starting Friday with a three-game series against Southern Cal starting at 6 p.m.

Oregon State gets sweep over Northern Illinois — Led by first baseman Zack Reser’s four RBIs, Oregon State took a 10-0 victory over Northern Illinois on Sunday at Goss Stadium in Corvallis for the weekend four-game nonconference sweep. Clark got the Beavers on the board with a two-run single in the first inning, then followed that with a two-run double in the sixth. Left fielder Michael Conforto reached base in all five plate appearances with a double, a single, two walks and a hit by pitch. Oregon State returns to action on Tuesday when it hosts Ohio State in a nonconference game at 5:35 p.m. The Beavers then hit the road and begin Pac-12 Conference play with a three-game series at Utah starting Friday at 5 p.m.

SLED DOG RACING

Zirkle maintains lead in Iditarod — Aliy Zirkle was holding on to the lead Sunday in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, leaving a checkpoint on Alaska’s wind-scoured western coast almost an hour ahead of her closest rival. The 44-year-old musher from Two Rivers, Alaska, left the Norton Sound village of Shaktoolik with 11 dogs at 7:12 a.m. Sunday for the 50-mile run to the next checkpoint at Koyuk. She was followed at 8 a.m. by four-time champion Jeff King and his 12-dog team. Zirkle has come in second place in the past two years in the nearly 1,000-mile race to Nome, 221 miles west of Shaktoolik. Zirkle is seeking to become only the third woman to win the race, and the first woman to win since the late Susan Butcher in 1990. Other front runners who left Shaktoolik Sunday were four-time champion Martin Buser, in third place, followed by veterans Sonny Lindner and Aaron Burmeister. Sixth out of Shaktoolik was 2012 Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey, who clocked out of the checkpoint at 10:28 a.m., followed 26 minutes later by his father, defending champion Mitch Seavey. The racers, who have five more checkpoints after Koyuk and before Nome, are expected to begin arriving in Nome by Tuesday.

Football

Lions owner William Clay Ford dies at 88 — William Clay Ford, the owner of the Detroit Lions and last surviving grandchild of automotive pioneer Henry Ford, has died. He was 88. Ford Motor Co. said in a statement Sunday that Ford died of pneumonia at his home. Ford helped steer the family business for more than five decades. He bought one of his own, the NFL franchise in the Motor City, a half-century ago. He served as an employee and board member of the automaker for more than half of its 100-year history. To the masses in Detroit, he was simply the owner of the Lions who struggled to achieve success on the field despite showing his passion for winning.

— From wire reports