Afternoon News: Tuesday March 21st 2023

Posey County Radio News and Sports

News:

A man facing theft and home improvement fraud charges in four Tri-State counties, has been sentenced in one of those counties. The Posey County Prosecutor says Matthew Gates pleaded guilty earlier this month in two cases in Posey County. In a felony theft case, Gates was sentenced to two years in prison, and is ordered to pay $12,400 in restitution. After time served credit, that put him at about 22 more days behind bars. It’s to be served consecutively with his sentence in a misdemeanor home improvement fraud case. That one was a year of probation, and Gates is ordered to pay $60,974.46 in restitution. Gates was also in court Monday in Warrick County. He’s charged in two cases there. There’s no new date set for the theft charge in Gibson County, nor any new dates for the three theft cases in Vanderburgh County.

The Evansville City Council have postponed the vote on an ordinance that would require approval for new projects within a certain boundary at Wesselman Park from the city council. Monday night, the Evansville City Council was set to vote on an ordinance that could have put a pause on the highly debated Pickleball Courts set to go up at Wesselman Park. During the meeting, the council instead took a vote to table the matter until a meeting in April. That vote was 7 yeses to 2 no’s. At that April meeting, the council says that there will be a presentation by the Park’s Board at that time. Officials say if the ordinance is passed, it could put a pause on the proposed pickleball courts at the park.

Evansville Regional Airport announces new flights ahead of spring break. For all those spring breakers or summer travelers, your options are expanding just in time. The Evansville Regional Airport announced more flights to current destinations including Dallas and Charlotte. American Airlines increased flights to Charlotte to three times daily. Those changes are in effect now and will last through summer. Dallas will return to three daily flights in April. The airport is encouraging travelers to book those flights through the American Airlines website. The airport also announced a third daily flight to Atlanta through Delta Airlines. Those flights are coming in June. Lastly, the airport released information on Allegiant’s expansion. The airline has added flights to Destin at EVV from June to August.

Sports:

- The NCAA Division 2 Men’s Basketball Elite 8 tipped off today at Ford Center in downtown Evansville. There are four games today, two on Thursday and the championship is Saturday afternoon. Today’s gametimes for the Elite 8 are 12:00 PM, 2:30 PM, 6:00 PM, and 8:30 PM. `

- University of Evansville junior pitcher, Donovan Schultz has been named the Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Week after a dominating performance in UE's 6-4 victory over Purdue on Sunday. Schultz tossed six shutout innings on Sunday to earn his third victory in a row.  He held a Purdue offense, which entered the weekend series ranked 31st in the country in scoring at 8.9 runs per game, to just four singles and five total base runners over six innings of work.  He tied a career-high with eight strikeouts. Schultz also did not allow an earned run for his third-straight start, and he extended his scoreless inning streak to 14.1 IP overall.  With the victory on Sunday, Schultz improved to 3-1 with a 2.67 ERA.  He has held opposing teams to a .159 batting average against him this season. With Sunday's victory over Purdue, Evansville improved to 12-7 overall. The Purple Aces have won five-straight games and 12 of their last 14. 

- UE Baseball’s game today at SIUE has been postponed and will be played tomorrow night at 5:00 PM.

- USI Baseball (7-13) looks to snap a 4-game losing streak down in Nashville tonight. The Screaming Eagles battle Belmont on the road at 4:00 PM.