Soccer

Germany reaches Euro 2012

semifinals by beating Greece

Germany scored three second-half goals to reach the European Championship semifinals for a record seventh time, beating Greece 4-2 Friday in Gdansk, Poland.

Philipp Lahm gave Germany the lead in the 39th minute before Georgios Samaras equalized for Greece in the 55th minute. But Sami Khedira, Miroslav Klose and Marco Reus each scored to pull Germany clear. Greece closed out scoring in the 89th minute on a penalty kick by Dimitris Salpigidis.

"We made some silly mistakes but at the end we scored four goals," Lahm said.

On Thursday in Warsaw, Poland, Germany will play the winner of Sunday's Italy-England quarterfinal match.

Euro 2012 group-stage matches on ESPN averaged more than 1 million viewers, an increase of 82 percent from Euro 2008 when the average was 552,000.

NCAA baseball

South Carolina advances

Two-time defending champion South Carolina rallied from a two-run deficit to beat Arkansas 3-2 and advance to the final at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

The winning run scored when Barrett Astin walked South Carolina's Adam Matthews with the bases loaded in the seventh.

South Carolina (49-18) of the Southeastern Conference will face Pac-12 Arizona (46-17) in the best-of-three championship series that starts Sunday.

Auto racing

Ambrose earns another pole

Marcos Ambrose had not won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole before last week.

But he led qualifiers for a second consecutive week and earned the pole for Sunday's race in Sonoma, Calif. He averaged 95.262 mph for his lap Friday on the 10-turn, 1.99-mile road course.

Jeff Gordon was second at 95.067.

Greg Biffle of Vancouver, Wash., qualified in fourth and Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw will start the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in 15th.

Franchitti has IndyCar pole

Dario Franchitti came out on top after the first three qualifying-heat races in the history of the IndyCar Series, earning the pole for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 in Newton, Iowa.

Franchitti wondered if offering more money and more points would provide added incentive for drivers and team owners risking their equipment for 30 heat laps instead of two qualifying ones.

"I'd like to see some tweaking. I think there's some things we can change, but I thought it was really good start," he said.

The starting grid was set by three 30-lap heats seeded according to practice times. The eight fastest in the last practice competed in the final heat, which set the first four rows for Saturday's race.

Elsewhere

• The NHL Pittsburgh Penguins traded center Jordan Staal, 23, to the Carolina Hurricanes for center Brandon Sutter, defenseman Brian Dumoulin and Carolina's No. 8 pick in the first round of Friday's draft, which the Penguins used to select defenseman Derrick Pouliot.

Staal, who scored 25 goals in the 2011-12 season despite missing 20 games because of injuries, will join his brother, Eric, in Carolina. Eric Staal, 27, scored 24 goals for the Hurricanes last season.

• I'll Have Another, winner of this year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, is headed to stud duty in Japan.

A representative of J. Paul Reddam said the owner has reached an agreement to sell the 3-year-old colt to Shigeyuki Okada of Big Red Farm on the island of Hokkaido. Financial terms were not disclosed.

I'll Have Another, who was retired earlier this month, will stand at stud starting with the 2013 breeding season.

• American Andy Roddick advanced to the Eastbourne tennis final in England when Belgian Steve Darcis received treatment on his back and didn't finish the match, which Roddick led 6-3, 3-1.

Roddick, 29, improved his career singles record to 600-208. He will play Andreas Seppi of Italy in Saturday's final.

Seattle Times news services