Bridget Collins scored four goals – all in the first half – as St. Joseph’s College advanced to the championship game of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference women’s lacrosse tournament with an 11-5 victory Wednesday night against Simmons, in Standish.

Lydia Dexter added two goals and two assists for the second-seeded Monks (16-3), who will play for the GNAC title on Saturday at Johnson & Wales.

Brianna Paul, Shauna Clark, Carson Battaglia and Teegan Gilreath also scored.

BASEBALL

ELMS 4, ST. JOSEPH’S 1: Aaron Young hit a two-run single in the eighth inning and Tyler Galenski drove in another run as the Blazers (22-13) pulled away to beat the Monks (18-21) in the play-in round of the GNAC Tournament at Springfield, Massachusetts.

Kyle Sebastyanski pitched eight shutout innings to earn the win.

Zach Miles singled home Terry Morrissey in the ninth for St. Joseph’s.

BETTING: Ohio’s top gambling regulator barred licensed sportsbooks in the state from accepting bets on Alabama baseball games after a report warned of suspicious gambling activity.

Matthew Schuler, executive director of the Ohio Casino Control Commission, issued an emergency order on Monday “prohibiting the acceptance of any wagers on University of Alabama Baseball effective immediately.” The order was first reported by ESPN.

Sports betting is legal in 33 states, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether any other states had issued similar orders.

“We are continuing to look into the matter,” Ohio’s commission spokesperson Jessica Franks said Tuesday.

The order said that one of the state’s “certified independent integrity monitors” notified the state about the wagers.

According to ESPN, Las-Vegas based U.S. Integrity warned sportsbooks of “suspicious wagering activity” involving Friday night’s Alabama-LSU game. Alabama scored five runs in the ninth inning of an 8-6 loss to LSU, which was ranked No. 1 in the major college baseball polls, while Alabama was unranked.
U.S. Integrity declined to comment.

NCAA rules bar athletes and athletic employees from betting on games “and from providing information to individuals involved in or associated with any type of sports wagering activities concerning intercollegiate, amateur or professional athletics competition.”

The NCAA said it was aware of the situation and gathering additional information. Alabama deputy athletic director Jessica Paré issued a similar statement, noting athletics officials became aware of this situation Monday evening.

Ronnie Johns, chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, said in an emailed statement that state officials “did not see any irregular activity in betting on the LSU/Alabama baseball series.”

“The operators of all the national sports book platforms did not report any suspicious activity in Louisiana,” he wrote Wednesday. “The issue at hand originated in Ohio alone and the Ohio Gaming Commission took action to shut down any bets involving Alabama. LSU baseball has absolutely not been implicated in any suspicious betting activity and therefore there is no investigation of any sort involving LSU.”