Sports briefs 5/14/05

Baseball

* Florida infielder Wilson Delgado and Kansas City utilityman Luis Ugueto were among four players given 15-game suspensions Friday for violating baseball's minor league steroids policy.

Pitcher Jeremy Cummings of St. Louis and first baseman Joshua Pressley of Kansas City were also suspended.

Sixty-three players have been suspended this year for violating the minor league program. Five players have been given 10-day penalties for violating the major league program.

College

* Kansas State's men and Texas A&M's women took the lead after the opening day of the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Kansas State University.

The Wildcats picked up points early with two top-five finishes Friday in the hammer throw and a third-place finish from Josh Scheer in the javelin. But it was Mathew Chesang's record-setting victory in the 10,000 meters that boosted them ahead of Texas A&M.

Motorsports

* Carl Edwards passed Elliott Sadler with one lap to go after a green-white-checker restart in overtime Friday night, depriving the Virginia native of his first Busch Series victory in his home state.

Sadler, who grabbed the lead from Johnny Sauter with seven laps to go in the Funai 250, appeared to have a left front tire that was losing air as he circled the track during the 13th and final caution, producing the extra laps.

Once the race went back to green to allow one chance for the drivers to settle it on the track, Sadler held the lead for almost all of the first lap until Edwards passed him inside at the start-finish line.

The victory was the second for Edwards in just 14 career starts in the Busch Series, and deprived Sadler of what would have been a cherished win. Edwards is 180 points ahead of Clint Bowyer in the series standings.

Tennis

* Roger Federer beat Guillermo Coria 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Hamburg Masters.

French teenager Richard Gasquet, one of only two players to beat Federer this year, also advanced to the semifinals, sweeping past Andreas Seppi 6-1, 6-2 in 52 minutes.

In the semifinals, Federer will play 15th-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who beat Filippo Volandri 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Qualifier Christophe Rochus rallied to beat Juan Ignacio Chela 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 and reached his second semifinal of the year after Scottsdale.

* Maria Sharapova finally won a quarterfinal match on clay.

The Russian teenager easily advanced to the Italian Open semifinals with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over countrywoman Elena Bovina on Friday. Sharapova failed to reach the semis in six previous clay-court tournaments.

She next faces eighth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, who cruised past Evgenia Linetskaya 6-1, 6-0.

In the other half of the draw, defending champion Amelie Mauresmo advanced with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over four-time Italian Open winner Conchita Martinez.

Mauresmo will next meet sixth-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia, who beat unseeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy 7-5, 7-6 (4).