Sports – Thursday, August 18th, 2016

Girls tennis: Fond du Lac goes 0-3 in the Oshkosh North quad. Losing to West Bend East 4-3, West Bend West 4-3 and Badger 7-0. Claire Weston and Ally Gietzel each picked up two wins for the Cardinals.

The first games of the 2016 high school football season will be played tonight in the state of Wisconsin. In non-conference play between the VFA North and South, Wausau West visits Stevens Point, also in the area, Wild Rose plays at Oshkosh Lourdes at Titan Stadium in Oshkosh. Some of the big games in the state include state powers Arrowhead and Homestead doing battle at Homestead and Menomonie will play at Greendale. Tomorrow, KFIZ will have coverage of Appleton West at Fond du Lac and on Saturday night, Shiocton at St. Mary’s Springs.

It’s preseason game number two for the Packers tonight at Lambeau Field against the Oakland Raiders. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers didn’t play in last week’s game against Cleveland and its unclear whether he will tonight. Defensive End Datone Jones said facing young Raiders quarterback Derek Carr will be a good challenge for the defensive unit. Pregame is at 5pm, kickoff at 7pm on News/Talk 1450 KFIZ.

Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson passed his physical Wednesday and has been activated from the physically unable to perform list. Nelson, who missed all of last season after tearing his right ACL in a preseason game, felt some discomfort in his knee while preparing for training camp and was placed on the PUP list. The Packers are expected to still limit Nelson’s on-field activity over the next few weeks, but his activation clears the way for Nelson to be ready to play in the season opener against Jacksonville on September 11th.

The Brewers continued to struggle to get anything going against Cubs pitching in their 6-1 loss at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night. Cubs starter Jon Lester went 6 and ⅔ innings, giving up three hits and striking out 7. The series finale is this afternoon, a 12:45 pregame time, 1:20 first pitch on KFIZ.

Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun is day to day after crashing into a wall at Wrigley Field on Tuesday night. Braun limped off after injuring his left knee and ankle and was held out of the lineup Wednesday night against the Cubs. Both Braun and manager Craig Counsell said he might be ready to play Thursday in Chicago and definitely expect him to play over the weekend in Seattle. He did not need an MRI or X-rays. Right-handed starter Chase Anderson may not miss his next turn after being struck in the right thigh by Kris Bryant’s comebacker Tuesday. Anderson left in the first inning but says he expects to play catch in the next day and evaluate from there. Counsell says there’s “a chance that he would be good enough to start” in the Brewers’ three-game series in Seattle

ESPN’s College GameDay pregame show will be live from Lambeau Field for the Badgers’ season opener against LSU on Saturday, September 3rd. The show will air from 8 until 11am on ESPN and will be located in front of the Brown County Arena on Oneida Street. It’s the show’s first visit to Lambeau Field, and a homecoming for analyst Desmond Howard, who helped the Packers win Super Bowl 31 and was MVP of the game.

The U.S. men’s basketball team powered into the semifinals of the Olympics, beating Argentina 105-78 on Wednesday night. Emphatically ending a stretch of three straight close games, the Americans turned a slow start into an early ending with a 27-2 run in the first half. Kevin Durant scored 27 points for the Americans. They will meet Spain on Friday in a rematch of the last two gold-medal games. Spain beat France 92-67 earlier Wednesday.