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MOBILE, Ala. - Catriona Matthew took the first-round lead Thursday in the Airbus LPGA Classic, holing a bunker shot for an eagle and finishing with an 8-under 64. The 44-year-old Scot rebounded from a bogey on the par-4 12th — her third hole in the morning round — with the eagle on the par-5 13th and birdied seven of her final 11 holes. "That kind of kick-started my round," Matthew said about the eagle. She won the last of her four LPGA Tour titles in 2011. "Obviously, really pleased," Matthew said. "Just had two weeks at home, so never quite know what youre going to come out and play like. So, yeah, delighted. Got the putter going and holed some putts." Charley Hull had a bogey-free 65 in the afternoon. The 18-year-old English player birdied the final two holes on the Crossings Course at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trails Magnolia Grove complex. "I putted quite well, hit it quite solid, and hit, I think, every green," said Hull, playing on a sponsor exemption. "I still left a few shots out there. I missed a 3- or 4-footer, but hey, another day tomorrow and hopefully I can go low." Second-ranked Stacy Lewis, No. 4 Suzann Pettersen and South Koreas Eun-Hee Ji shot 66. Lewis, the 2012 winner, finished her first nine with birdies on Nos. 15-18. She hit a 7-iron to 15 feet on the par-4 15, got up-and-down from over the back of the green on the par-5 16th, hit a 6-iron to 15 feet on the par-3 17th and hit a 6-iron to 12 feet on the par-4 18th. "The scores are so low that if you dont go pretty low the first day, youre kind of behind the 8-ball," Lewis said. So, it was really nice to get off to a good start." The Texan won the North Texas LPGA Shootout three weeks ago for her ninth tour title. Last week in Virginia, she closed with a 74 to tie for 12th in the Kingsmill Championship. "Coming off of last week where I didnt hit the ball well, I was happy with the way I drove it today," Lewis said. "I hit it solid and made some putts. Figured something little out in my putting and I think that might help the rest of the week." Pettersen, playing her fourth event since returning from a back injury, had a bogey-free round. "Im feeling pretty good, felt pretty calm," Pettersen said. "I feel like my game is right there, trying to be patiently aggressive. Playing smart on the hole locations that arent quite set up for being aggressive and then trying to take advantage. But the greens are fairly receptive, so it feels like you can kind of fire at the pin and not have to worry about too much spin, which makes this course a little bit easier." Ji, the 2009 U.S. Womens Open champion, birdied four of the five holes in a bogey-free round. "I felt good this morning when I was warming up," Ji said. "Feel good with my swing and with my putter. Was out there like, I can see the green. I can see the line. So I just made a lot of putts." Bahamas winner Jessica Korda was three strokes back at 67 along with 2010 champion Se Ri Pak, Nicole Castrale, Julieta Granada, Moira Dunn and Jenny Shin. Pak also won the Tournament of Champions on the course in 2001 and 2002. Anna Nordqvist, a two-time winner this year, had a 68, and Kraft Nabisco winner Lexi Thompson opened with a 70. Michelle Wie, the winner in Hawaii, and defending champion Jennifer Johnson shot 71. Top-ranked Inbee Park had a 74. Shes winless in eight tour starts this season after sweeping the first three majors last year and finishing the season with six victories. Stephan Lichtsteiner Jersey . Perhaps as important, shes sending a message to 17-year-old gold medal favourite Sara Takanashi of Japan. Iraschko-Stolz relegated Takanashi, who has 10 World Cup victories this season, to second place in two of three training jumps Saturday. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Jersey .J. -- New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is going to start the off-season training program with a surgically repaired left ankle. http://www.arsenalsoccerproshop.com/Authentic-Konstantinos-Mavropanos-Arsenal-Jersey/ . In this weeks Leaf Report podcast, James Mirtle and Jonas Siegel debate whether Toronto can continue their shootout dominance and discuss what Dave Nonis game plan should be heading into the trade deadline. Sokratis Papastathopoulos Arsenal Jersey . Crawford hit his slam off Pirates starter Edinson Volquez to give San Francisco a four run lead in the fourth and they never looked back. Brandon Belt had three runs batted in as well. Bumgarner pitched all nine innings and allowed just four hits. Emiliano Martinez Jersey . Yahoo! Sports columnist Marc Spears says that the Boogie Smooth album may have been an elaborate April Fools prank.STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Mississippi State was crushed twice by Florida last season, once by 35 points and the other by 25. This time around, the margin was just 11. That represents progress for Mississippi State, which lost 62-51 to No. 3 Florida on Thursday night, but the gap between the Gators and the Bulldogs is still vast. "Our team is growing," Mississippi State coach Rick Ray said. "But weve still got a ways to go." Mississippi State (13-7, 3-4 Southeastern Conference) lost for the first time at home during conference play. Colin Borchert scored 15 and Craig Sword 12 for Mississippi State. Casey Prather scored 16 points, Patric Young added 12 and the Gators used a 16-4 run early in the second half to turn a tight game into a relatively easy victory. Florida has won 12 straight this season and four in a row against the Bulldogs. It was the 12th time this season Florida (18-2, 7-0) held an opponent to 60 points or fewer. "We cant always control the ball going in the basket," Young said. "But we can control our energy on the defensive end." And that energy was intense the entire night. Mississippi State shot a respectable 23 of 54 (42.6 per cent) from the field, but had to work hard on every possession. The Bulldogs briefly took a 31-30 lead early in the second half on Gavin Wares layup, but the Gators responded with a 16-4 run. Mississippi State couldnt muster the energy for a rally. Florida coach Billy Donovan said the key to stopping Mississippi State was keeping them off the free throw line. The Bulldogs had 117 combined free-throw attempts in three SEC home games this season. They were just 1 of 6 on Thursday. "A huge key was if we could defend them off the bounce and not foul," Donovan said. "I thought we did a good job there." Floridas Michael Frazier II had just nine points, but his three 3-pointers helped the Gators keep a comfortable lead throughout most of the second half. The 6-foot-4 sophomore missed his first six 3-point attempts before the last three dropped. The Gators shot 6 of 20 (30 per cent) from 3-point range and 8 of 19 (42.dddddddddddd1 per cent) on free throws. Chris Walker, Floridas touted 6-foot-10 freshman forward, is expected to make his college debut on Tuesday against Missouri after being cleared by the NCAA. His arrival will give the Gators some much needed frontcourt depth. But Young was enough on Thursday. The powerful 6-foot-9, 240-pound senior was a consistent presence on both ends of the court, providing timely baskets and post defence. "No disrespect to Mississippi State, but theyre probably not going to win an SEC championship this year," Young said. "We have an opportunity to do that, and we need to play to a championship level." Prather went to the locker room briefly in the first half after an ankle injury, but returned to shoot 7 of 8 from the field. His baseline drive and dunk gave the Gators a 55-42 lead with 5 minutes left that ended any remaining doubt. Mississippi State had an 11-1 record at Humphrey Coliseum coming into Thursdays game and was tough once again on its home floor. Tyson Cunningham made an off-balance 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down to spark an 8-0 run at the end of the first half, and I.J. Readys layup a few seconds before the buzzer pulled the Bulldogs within 27-26. Florida was coming off a dominant defensive performance in a 67-41 victory over Tennessee on Saturday, and the teams length and athleticism also gave the Bulldogs problems. But the Gators couldnt hit shots -- making just 10 of 27 (37 per cent) from the field in the first half. Nothing was easy. Young hit a couple inside buckets early in the second half and Prathers layup at the rim gave the Gators a 42-32 advantage with 12:05 remaining. Mississippi State had a couple of good moments in the second half, but Floridas superior depth, size and athleticism proved too much to overcome. Ready added 10 points for the Bulldogs. "Offensively we had our problems," Mississippi State coach Rick Ray. "I thought we had a plethora of opportunities in the first half to finish at the rim that we just didnt get done." ' ' '