Ryan Westmoreland has returned to the Lowell Spinners.
Westmoreland, voted the New York-Penn League's top prospect last year and named the Red Sox' No. 1 prospect by the publication Baseball America following his outstanding summer in Lowell, underwent delicate brain surgery in March that clouded his baseball future. When Westmoreland spoke with reporters in a conference call earlier this summer, he was still walking with the aid of a cane.
But the Red Sox assigned Westmoreland to the Spinners on Aug. 30, and he will be with the club through the end of the home season that ends tomorrow night. Westmoreland won't play any games, but he will be working out with the team. When the Spinners go on the road to Hudson Valley for the last three games of the season this weekend, Westmoreland will report to Greenville of the Class A South Atlantic League to continue his rehabilitation in hopes of returning to the diamond in 2011.
Westmoreland hit .296 in 60 games for the Spinners last year with 15 doubles, 3 triples, 7 homers, 35 RBI, and 38 runs while stealing 19 bases in as many tries. His season came to a premature end on Aug. 28 when he broke his collarbone in a collision with the outfield fence while making a catch at LeLacheur Park.
A sixth-round draft pick by the Red Sox in 2008, the Rhode Island native received a $2 million signing bonus.

Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

The UMass Lowell women's basketball schedule has not been updated on the school's website, but we've got you covered.

Some of the dates you want to keep an eye out for are:

November 13 and 14. UML opens the season in Springfield at American International College as part of an AIC tip-off tournament. The first game will be against CW Post, and the second game will be against Bloomfield.

November 17. UML's first home game. The River Hawks host St. Michael's.

December 11. UML plays Merrimack in the Tsongas Center.

January 2. Stonehill visits Costello Gymnasium. Local fans will get a chance to see former Sun Player of the Year and Westford Academy standout Asia Ewing back in the area with the Skyhawks.

It doesn't appear the Lowell Spinners will get any late-season help from the three college pitchers signed two weeks ago. But they may get some help from a couple other high draft picks.
The Red Sox' plan for sandwich pick Anthony Ranaudo, second-round pick Brandon Workman, and seventh-round pick Chris Hernandez, is to just have them work out with the Spinners and begin pitching next year. But the Red Sox have promoted outfielder Henry Ramos and shortstop Sean Coyle from Fort Myers in the rookie Gulf Coast League. Both are 18.
Ramos is in the lineup tonight, playing right field for the Spinners against the Staten Island Yankees. He got off to a rough start, overrunning a ball and being charged with an error on his first New York-Penn League fielding chance that cost starter Keith Couch an unearned run. But he atoned in the fourth by bringing home a run from third base with a groundball to help the Spinners take a 3-1 lead.
Ramos, 18, was the Red Sox' fifth-round pick and was considered the best power-hitting prospect in Puerto Rico. The Red Sox signed him for a $138,200 bonus. The switch-hitting outfielder batted .309 with three homers and 26 RBI in 43 games with Fort Myers and also stole 12 bases.
Coyle, a schoolboy from Pennsylvania, was the Red Sox' third-round pick and signed for $1.3 million. The 18-year-old righthanded hitter got only 10 at-bats in the GCL, collecting two hits. He is not presently on Lowell's active roster but could play before the end of the season.

Third baseman Kolbrin Vitek is no longer a Lowell Spinner. The Boston Red Sox promoted their top pick in the June draft to Greenville of the Class A South Atlantic League on Wednesday. Vitek, the 20th overall pick in the draft who received a signing bonus of $1,359,000, hit .270 in 56 games with Lowell. He had 13 doubles, 3 triples, 4 homers, and 30 RBI while stealing 13 bases in 15 tries and scoring 29 runs. A second baseman in college at Ball State, Vitek had problems adjusting to third base with the Spinners. He committed 14 errors in 29 games at third.
Meanwhile, three highly-regarded pitching prospects have joined the Spinners after agreeing to terms with the Red Sox at the signing deadline on Aug. 16. Anthony Ranaudo, their third pick in the draft; Brandon Workman, their second-round pick and fourth overall in June, and Chris Hernandez, their seventh-round pick, are working out with the Spinners but will not pitch for them this summer. LSU's Ranaudo received a signing bonus of $2.55 million -- the largest given out by the Red Sox this year -- while Texas' Workman got $800,000 and Miami's Hernandez $375,000.

Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

The UMass Lowell women's basketball team just got a lot bigger. The River Hawks welcome four transfer students for this upcoming season. Heading up the group are former Lowell High School standouts Brianna and Whitney Wilson.

The Wilson sisters, they are twins, transfer after playing their freshman year at Salem State College. They were part of the most successful class (by win total) produced by Lowell High girls program.

Brianna, a 6-foot-4 former Sun Player of the Year, earned Second Team All Conference in the Mass. State College Athletic Conference as a freshman last year. She started 25 of 26 games, and she ranked second on the team in scoring (10.7 points per game) and tied for the team lead in rebounding (7.3 rebounds per game).

Whitney, a 6-foot-3 former Sun All-Star, played in 25 games at Salem State. She averaged 6.1 points and 4.7 rebounds in a little more than 17 minutes per game as a freshman.

"We are excited to have a couple of local players join our UMass Lowell family," UML head coach Kathy O'Neil said. "Brianna and Whitney will give us depth in the post position. Both of them played AAU basketball with Briana Szdiat. All of them played for Rickey Oliver and the New England Panthers."

Erika Sjöberg and Nychoul Biliew will also join the River Hawks. Both will bring international flavor.

Sjöberg, a 5-foot-10 shooting guard, transfers from the University of South Carolina Aiken where she red shirted last season. She'll be a sophomore. She is from Sweden and played a year of high school in Mississippi.

Biliew comes to UML from Portland, Maine. She is originally from Ethiopia and the Sudan. She is transferring from Southern Maine Community College. Biliew did not play this past year so she will be coming in as a freshmen.

Posted By Lynn Worthy

UML men's basketball coach Greg Herenda confirmed that Max Kerman will not be part of the 2010-11 River Hawks team.

Kerman is not transferring to another program, he has simply decided to leave school, according to Herenda.

A captain of the River Hawks as a sophomore and a junior, Kerman would have been the lone senior for the UML men this season. He started 26 games for the River Hawks last season, averaging 5.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game.

The 2009-10 Northeast-10 Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Kerman usually guarded the opposing team's best offensive player.

A Watertown native, Kerman attended Bridgton Academy prior to coming to UML. He had standout career at Watertown High School.

Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

UMass Lowell promoted men's basketball assistant coach Marc Kuntz to associate head coach on Monday.

Kuntz, a graduate of Xavier University, has been with the program since 2005. He is a holdover from Ken Barer's coaching staff.

Today, UML head coach Greg Herenda said assistant coach Josh King has left the program to join Marshall University's basketball staff as a graduate assistant.

A native of Trinity, N.C., Josh King joined the UMass Lowell coaching staff last summer. He spent the previous season as the assistant men's basketball coach at Vassar College.

Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff

Not that you asked, but I'm going to tell you anyway:

-2010 American League Manager of the Year? Terry Francona, hands down.

He's not going to win. Ron Washington of the Texas Rangers will likely get that nod, followed by the Twins Ron Gardenhire and perhaps one or two other skippers from teams that were supposed to stink but ended up mediocre. That's how these things go.

I challenge you however, to name another manager who lost more star players to significant injury yet somehow kept his team in contention in baseball's toughest division than Tito.

The Red Sox top four offensive weapons entering the season (Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and Victor Martinez) have missed prolonged stretches of games, mostly overlapping. Josh Beckett has been more useless than an ashtray on a motorcycle. Clay Buchholz has missed time from the rotation, as has Daisuke Matsuzaka. On far too many occasions, the likes of Daniel Nava, Darnell McDonald and Eric Patterson have graced Francona's lineup card the same night.

If what Francona has done and continues to do (without a single excuse or complaint about a front office that left him far more vulnerable to injury than his top competitor in New York) doesn't constitute Manager of the Year, I'm definitely not worthy of that Baseball Writers Association of America credential that's been lost in the mail all these years!

-Roger Clemens shouldn't go to jail for lying to Congress. He should go to jail for criminal stupidity and aggravated stubbornness.

Clemens wasn't forced to testify. He did so voluntarily. He knew his best friend Andy Pettitte had testified under oath the previous day. He didn't have to lie. He wasn't facing anything other than public ridicule had he admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. And recently, he turned down a plea agreement that would have kept him out of jail again.

So either Rocket is telling the truth (doubt it) or he's one of the dumbest people on the planet and needs to be saved from himself by being in protective custody for 6-12 months.

-Speaking of athletes who don't know when to quit:

I'm shocked, positively shocked I tell you, that Brett Favre returned for one more season. I'll be even more surprised if the Vikings season doesn't end as a result of another stupid Favre interception.

-Finally, English rugby player Tom Williams has been suspended four months for faking an injury.

Seems Williams' squad had used its allowance of substitutions, but really wanted to get a kicking specialist onto the field for a key play near the end of a do-or-die match. So Williams bit on a blood capsule and walked off the field for an injury substitution. (Somewhere, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka nods in appreciation)

Apparently, this wasn't the first time the team had attempted this routine and when Williams was caught on camera winking to his teammates, the opposing squad went nuts and protested. In an attempt to cover his tracks during a post-game inspection, Williams convinced team doctor, Wendy Chapman, to cut his lip with a stitch cutter.

The great irony in all this? The "illegal" sub ended up missing the kick, costing Williams and company the game.

Yes, Tom Brady needs a haircut, he looks about 12 years old...
Hard Knocks on HBO is a pretty good show. It's hard to hate Rex Ryan, he's just doing his job, albeit with a big mouth...
No, the Red Sox will not make the playoffs. They should put all their injured players on the shelf and come back strong next year...
Went to the B-52's concert in Lowell Friday. Real good show, they haven't lost their voices at all. Two problems: One, the stage is too low. Hardly anyone can see the performers, it needs to be raised five or ten feet. Two, no porta-potties. You have to go stand in line at the parking garage to get relief...
Saw Sheer Madness in Boston Sunday. Another great show, I recommend it, but get your tix half-price at the kiosk in Copley Square or Faneuil Hall, it won't be sold out...
Week three, Sept. 24. Methuen at Billerica. The favoirte in the Merrimack Valley Conference football race will be established at that point, then it's up to Chelmsford, Central or Lowell to knock them off...
I don't really like Dunkin Donuts coffee, so why do I keep drinking it?

Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

UMass Lowell recruit Jimmy McDonnell will not be joining the River Hawks after all.

The 6-foot-9 native of Jackson, New Jersey, had signed to attend UMass Lowell in the fall, however, he has decided to attend Temple University instead.

Temple, an NCAA Division 1 program and the three-time defending Atlantic-10 Conference champions, came in with a late scholarship offer. Not only are the Owls a Division 1 program, but McDonnell will also be much closer to his hometown.

This drops the UML incoming class down to five freshman with Antonio Bivins, Chris Thompson, Darrell Ward, Kerry Weldon, and Akeem Williams due to join the River Hawks this season.

McDonnell averaged 13.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 4.0 blocks per game as a senior at Jackson Memorial High School.

"We are excited to have Jimmy become a member of the Temple Basketball team," Temple University head coach Fran Dunphy said in a release on the school's website. "He is a developing player who has his best days ahead of him, and we are looking forward to having the opportunity to coach him."

Jonathan Papelbon became the first reliever in major-league history to record 30 saves in each of his first five seasons when he retired the Angels in the ninth, and he did it with a flourish, striking out the side. John Lackey, who retired the last seven batters he faced on a tough night, lasted seven innings and got the victory, raising his record to 11-7. Reliever Kevin Jepsen took the loss. The Red Sox won 7-5.

The Red Sox added an insurance run in the eighth against reliever Michael Kohn. Marco Scutaro led off with a double to right, was bunted to third by Petroia, and scored on a single through a drawn-in infield by Martinez, upping the Red Sox' lead to 7-5.