Haverford pitcher/outfielder J.J. Sims and Garnet Valley first baseman Matt Hendrixson announced their commitments to play baseball at the University of Rhode Island.

Interestingly, Sims and Hendrixson played together during their middle-school days at the All-Star Baseball Academy in West Chester.

Sims, a swifty base-runner, swiped 17 of 18 bags last season for the Fords. Hendrixson, who boasts a sure hand at first base, also has power potential at the plate. He batted .300 for the Jaguars in 2008.

For more on their commitments, check out Saturday's edition of the Daily Times.

This week marked the first installment of the boys soccer notebook, which will print weekly every Thursday in the Daily Times.

You can always count on the Super 7, which has Thomas Arkue and the Upper Darby Royals, pictured, at the top of the county rankings.

In this week's notebook, we take a look at Penn Wood's Menuh Wiah, a Liberia native who leads the county with 12 goals in the early going. There's also good stuff about Haverford coach Jorge Severini, who notched his 200th win, and much more.

Keep an eye out every Thursday for the latest in Delco boys soccer.

ON THE GRIDIRON:
There are plenty of intriguing matchups to keep an eye on tonight, Week 4. (Can you believe it? We're already a quarter of the way into the season.)

For starters, the Central League game between Strath Haven and Garnet Valley has the makings of being the game of the week. Haven needs a huge game from Lonnie Richardson, a running back/safety, if it is to upset the Jaguards.

For the rest of the games, here are the quick-hitters and our expert panel's picks. (Note our loose use of the word 'expert'.)

ON THE HARDWOOD:
The Daily Times was the first to report on the college commitments of Chester's Rahlir Jefferson and Glen Mills' Aaric Murray to Temple and La Salle, respectively. Here are the official stories, found only in Friday's edition of the Daily Times.

Have a good weekend and check back next week for more.

Haverford's Joey Cafferky isn't just a solid scoring option for Fords coach Terry McNichol; he's also a translation machine.

Philadelphia Daily News managing editor Pat McLoone sent out an e-mail last month to a bunch of his friends, including McNichol (who's also his neighbor). McLoone was seeking someone, anyone who could translate a Swedish newspaper story on former NHL star Peter Forsberg.

McNichol put Cafferky, a Swedish exchange student, to the task. Cafferky translated the story, phoned McLoone with his report from the team's bus, then scored 10 points in the Fords' 62-40 win over Radnor Jan. 29. In the journalism business, everyone knows everyone. I once interned at the Daily News (and for McLoone) in the sports department. He's good people, and I'm glad he got the story translated. Kudos to Cafferky, too. What a heck of a story.

The Fords (14-10), the No. 21 seed, will travel to take on No. 12 Cheltenham (17-7) Friday night in the District One Class AAAA playoffs.

The big news Thursday night was Lower Merion getting one step closer toward clinching the regular-season title in the Central League. The Aces' win over Radnor coupled with Haverford completing a season-sweep over Ridley puts Lower Merion in the driver's seat. Lower Merion and Ridley play one another Saturday, which could determine whether the teams share the crown or LM gets it outright.

Of course, there were some other goings-on from the hardwood:

• Springfield, behind 20 points from Lou Meindl, snapped an 11-game losing streak and knocked off Upper Darby.
• Glen Mills took a 30-24 lead against Chester into halftime before the Clippers snapped out of it and stifled the Bulls. The win solidifies a perfect 10-0 season in Del Val League play for Chester.
• Cardinal O'Hara got thumped by Neumann-Goretti, 85-49. If the Lions had any inkling of sneaking into the Catholic League playoffs, that's out the window now.

More to come Friday night, when I'll be blogging live (wireless Internet permitting) from Villanova's Pavilion and the Primetime Shootout. Don't miss it.

A couple things I saw Tuesday night at Marple Newtown got me thinking about doing a 'By the Numbers' post. First, the Tigers' Soutiri Sapnas knocked down five 3-pointers. For being a slasher who drives the lane, that's an unreal amount. Second, there was a time in the third quarter when Marple had more 3-pointers as a team (7) than 2-point field goals (6).

Here are some of my other findings from a night of Delaware County boys basketball action:
2 - Wins Ridley needs to clinch the Central League crown, after beating Upper Darby tonight.
5 - Number of Haverford High scorers to reach double figures. That's NBA caliber, right there.
7 - Number of games (and losses) for the Haverford School in Inter-Ac play.
10 - Blocked shots recorded by Glen Mills' Aaric Murray, who posted a triple-double in the Bulls' win over Penn Wood.
10 - Consecutive Del Val League crowns won by Chester High. Kudos to the Clips for maintaining their reign of the league for the past decade.
14 - Conestoga's biggest lead over Marple Newtown, which overcame the deficit only to lose to the Pioneers.
26 - Points scored by Ridley's Shamar Harris, posting a new career-high in the process.