FORT MYERS, Fla. — Twins pitcher David Festa’s offseason work was focused around two things: developing a curveball — a slower pitch which will provide some contrast to his harder offerings — and finding a lifting routine that would help him recover better.

Both were important for the 24-year-old, who is firmly on the radar after being selected in the 13th round of the 2021 draft. Festa, who is now the Twins’ top pitching prospect and will serve as important rotation depth this year, made his spring debut on Sunday, throwing a scoreless inning in the Twins’ 7-3 loss to the Washington Nationals at Hammond Stadium.

“To get him in a major-league game was important to us and important to him,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “ … Getting that outing, getting through that outing was good. He showed a nice pickoff move, gets a groundball. Little bit of everything today. It’s a nice day to see one of your good young players out there.”

The lanky right-hander looks ticketed to start the year at Triple-A after finishing last year there. He made three starts for the Saints, compiling a 2.92 earned-run average in 12 1/3 innings near the end of the season.

Then, he went to work developing the new breaking ball, which he thinks will help him, particularly against lefties.

“I really don’t have anything that’s slow and depthy to change the hitters’ timing so I’ve been kind of working on that,” he said. “I’ve thrown it in some bullpen (sessions), and it’s just a slow work in progress, but I think it’s something that will help me long term.”

He also started working with a trainer at home in New Jersey that Twins assistant general manager Jeremy Zoll knew, who helped him develop a lifting routine that worked better for his long, lean body type.

Festa said he didn’t necessary recover as well as he would like so lifting with more volume has helped avoid some of the soreness in his legs and arm that he would typically feel.

“I think that’s something that will help me throughout the season because I want to be a guy that can throw 150-200 innings,” he said. “I think lifting with volume will help me out in the future.”

Festa has had an interesting path to this point, pitching sparingly in high school and then diving headfirst into the craft in college. The Twins saw enough while he was there to select him in the back half of the draft out of Seton Hall University.

At that point, he had a fastball in the low 90s. Now, he’s consistently in the mid-90s, a testament, he said, to the coaches in the Twins organization, who now have him knocking on the door of the major leagues.

“My mom wanted me to go play shortstop (at college) but I was like honestly, my bat dwindled away. I think just for giving myself the best chance, I think pitching would be the right idea,” Festa said. “I didn’t imagine it but once you start having some success in college, it starts to become a little bit more of a reality.  … I was lucky enough to get drafted by the Twins.”

Briefly

Pablo López started Sunday’s game and gave up four runs (three earned) in four innings. He allowed five hits and struck out three. … Max Kepler hit his first home run of the spring in the fourth inning. … Chris Paddack will take the mound on Monday when the Twins head north to play the Atlanta Braves. … Baldelli said reliever Caleb Thielbar, dealing with a hamstring strain, is doing “very well.”  “He’s moving into a place where we’re going to see him, and he’s hopefully going to look normal and he can take the mound and do everything he needs to do,” Baldelli said.

Related Articles

After big day at the plate, Twins’ Byron Buxton wishes season “started tomorrow”

Twins starter Anthony DeSclafani ‘feeling good’ as he tests elbow

Already near top of his game, for Twins pitching ace Pablo López, the work never stops

Twins starter Joe Ryan works on new (old?) pitch

Twins announce radio, broadcast schedules for 2024 season

They’ll be playing on the road in upstate New York, and as the lower seed. But a case can be made that the Minnesota Gophers will be the favorites on Saturday afternoon in their quarterfinal NCAA tournament game at No. 4 seed Clarkson of the ECAC, with the winner advancing to the Frozen Four.

For starters, the Gophers (27-9-2), the No. 5 seed, play in the best women’s hockey conference in the nation in the WCHA, and were one fluky goal away from beating eventual conference champion Wisconsin in the semifinals of the WCHA Final Faceoff.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the Gophers and Clarkson (32-4-2) had a common opponent this season in Cornell, which finished fourth in the ECAC. Clarkson lost twice to Cornell, 3-2 in overtime and 3-0, while the Gophers beat Cornell 5-1 in a tournament in Washington, D.C., in November.

“We’re certainly confident in our team and in our abilities,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “When we played Cornell, their season had just started a month earlier. Cornell has gone on a pretty good run after we were able to beat them.

“I don’t take a lot of stock in that, in regards to the common opponent thing. It’s going to be up to us to make sure we’re really good in our habits and our structure and playing with confidence as we go in there.”

Frost mentioned last week during the Final Faceoff at Ridder Arena that he would have no qualms about playing on the road in the NCAAs, and he reiterated that point on Sunday after the tournament field was announced.

“The biggest reason is that we’ve had success there,” Frost said. “The first half of the season we were on the road like crazy, and we had pretty good success. We’re a team that really focuses on ourselves, so line matchups and things like that, yeah, they’re all part of it.

“But when you’re on the road you’re just really rolling and just playing.”

A stingy defense was a big reason for Clarkson’s success this season. The Golden Knights allowed only 45 goals in 38 games.

“They’re a very structured and disciplined team,” Frost said. “Goaltending is tremendous. They have a couple of national team ‘D’, one for Canada and one for team USA, and then some skill up front.”

Frost compared their style of play to that of Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State, but said Clarkson has a higher overall skill level.

“I expect a patient game, a lower-scoring game,” he said. “Something where special teams are going to be critically important. They’re going to be hard to score on.”

The Gophers were shocked by the late game-tying goal by Wisconsin in the Final Faceoff matchup and the loss to the Badgers in overtime. But they feel like they can build on the way they competed against the No. 2 team in the nation.

“Obviously you want to win that game,” Frost said, “but then to see Wisconsin go out and beat Ohio State in the championship game, we know those are the top two teams in the country. We can play with them; we know we can do that.”

The Gophers will be without second-line center Madison Kaiser, who will be out for the remainder of the season after sustaining an upper body injury in the loss to Wisconsin.

Looking at the 11-team field, Ohio State is the No. 1 seed despite making the tournament as an at-large team. Wisconsin is the No. 2 seed, with Colgate at No. 3.

Minnesota Duluth will play Connecticut on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, with the winner playing Ohio State. The Cornell/Stonehill winner will play Colgate and the winner of the game between St. Lawrence and Penn State will face Wisconsin.

The Gophers will be playing for a 16th trip to the Frozen Four after losing to eventual national champion Wisconsin in the semifinals last season.

“It’s certainly a goal of ours every year to be in a position where we make the NCAA tournament,” Frost said. “With not knowing exactly what our team would look like coming into the year, from a, ‘Who’s going to create offense?’ standpoint in particular, there were a lot of unknowns.

“But really happy with our team; how they progressed throughout the year. And certainly the way we’re playing right now.”

Related Articles

Women’s hockey: No. 2 Wisconsin steams past No. 1 Ohio State for WCHA title

Women’s hockey: Wisconsin stuns Gophers with goal in final seconds of regulation, then OT winner

Women’s hockey: Gophers face stern test against No. 2 Wisconsin

Women’s hockey: Gophers close out MSU Mankato in WCHA quarterfinals

Women’s hockey: Josefin Bouveng scores five points, Gophers tie WCHA series with Mavericks

The Oscars 2024 red carpet is underway, and the stars are already dazzling at the 96th annual Academy Awards.

The show starts at 4 p.m. — an hour earlier than usual — on ABC with late-night TV funnyman Jimmy Kimmel returning for a fourth time as host. “Oppenheimer” leads the pack of nominees with 13 nods, including Best Picture. The top award seems pretty much a lock for Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic.

In fact, there seems to be little suspense in several categories tonight, save for Best Actress. Frontrunners Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone turned in universally acclaimed performances in “Poor Things” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” respectively. Both triumphed at the Golden Globes when they were nominated in separate categories for comedy and drama. First-time nominee Gladstone seems to have a slight edge, having triumphed at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. If she wins, she’ll become the first Native American recipient of an acting award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Here are some of the best looks from the Oscars 2024 red carpet so far:

Julianne Hough attends the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Liza Koshy attends the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Brittany Snow attends the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Mamoudou Athie attends the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)
Nazrin Choudhury attends the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Osage Singers and Dancers attend the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Vanessa Hudgens attends the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Laverne Cox attends the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Osage Singers and Dancers attend the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

Contributing: Amber Garrett, New York Daily News; Randy Myers, Bay Area News Group

Minnetonka senior forward Hagen Burrows was named the 40th winner of the Minnesota Mr. Hockey award at Sunday’s banquet. The Denver commit tallied 19 goals and 40 assists this season to lead the Skippers in points.

The award is given to the state’s top senior.

Chanhassen’s Kam Hendrickson was named the Frank Brimsek award winner, given to the state’s top senior netminder. Hendrickson allowed just one goal per game this season, while stopping 95 percent of the shots he faced. Hendrickson powered the Storm to the Class 2A title game. The highlight of his postseason run was a 44-save performance in a section final victory over Minnetonka.

Minnetonka’s John Stout was named the winner of the Reed Larson award given to the state’s top senior defenseman. The Minnesota Duluth commit had 30 points this season from the Skippers’ blue line.

Related Articles

State Boys Hockey: A year later, Edina finishes the job with 2-1 win over Chanhassen for 2A title

Class A boys state hockey: St. Cloud Cathedral 3, Hermantown 1

State Boys Hockey: Edina takes down Grand Rapids to set up 1-2 showdown for 2A title

State boys hockey: Chanhassen’s early blitz stops Cretin-Derham Hall in Class 2A semifinal

State boys hockey: Mahtomedi’s rally falls just short in Class A semifinal overtime loss to Hermantown