Mexico tops Venezuela; Dominican Republic beats Panama

Victor Mendoza hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs as Mexico earned a key 9-4 victory over Venezuela on Friday night to remain in contention in the Caribbean Series.

The Charros de Jalisco won their second straight game and finished the first round with a 2-2 record.

With the loss, Venezuela has a 2-1 record and can qualify for the final with a victory over Cuba (1-2) on Saturday.

Victor Mendoza of Mexico's Los Charros de Jaliscos celebrates after scoring against Venezuela's Cardenales de Lara in the sixth inning of a Caribbean Series baseball tournament game at the Rod Carew stadium in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

Mexico needs a Cuban victory to force a tiebreak by run average.

The Cardenales de Lara scored twice in the sixth and trailed 5-4. In the bottom of the inning, Mendoza hit a three-run shot to all but secure a win for the Mexicans.

It was Mexico*s first home run of the series.

Juniel Querecuto of Venezuela's Cardenales de Lara, celebrates with teammates after scoring a run against Mexico's Los Charros de Jaliscos, in the sixth inning of a Caribbean Series baseball tournament game at the Rod Carew stadium in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

In another game, the Dominican Republic defeated Panama 5-3 to take first place in Group B.

The Estrellas Orientales finished the first round with a 3-1 record. Panama is second at 2-1, and Puerto Rico is out of contention at 0-3.

To qualify for the final, the Dominicans need Puerto Rico to beat Panama on Saturday in the last game of the group.

Agustin Murillo of Mexico's Los Charros de Jaliscos is safe on second ahead of a tag by Alexi Amarista of Venezuela's Cardenales de Lara, in the second inning of a Caribbean Series baseball tournament game at the Rod Carew stadium in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

The Toros de Herrera from Panama, playing in the tournament for the first time since 1960, needs a win by a large margin to qualify with the tiebreak.

Wilkin Castillo knocked in three runs with a double in the sixth inning and finished with three hits and four RBIs for the Dominicans.

Dariel Alvarez of Mexico's Los Charros de Jaliscos is congratulated by Manny Rodriguez, right, after scoring a run against Venezuela's Cardenales de Lara in the fifth inning of a Caribbean Series baseball tournament game at the Rod Carew stadium in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

Dariel Alvarez of Mexico's Los Charros de Jaliscos, left center, is congratulated by Manny Rodriguez after scoring a run against Venezuela's Cardenales de Lara in the fifth inning of a Caribbean Series baseball tournament game at the Rod Carew stadium in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

Starting pitcher Marco Tovar of Mexico's Los Charros de Jaliscos, winds up for a pitch in the first inning of a Caribbean Series baseball tournament game against Venezuela's Cardenales de Lara, at the Rod Carew stadium in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

Dominican Republic's Estrellas Orientales' teammates celebrate Emilio Gustave and Moises Sierra score runs against Panama's Los Toros de Herrera, in their sixth inning during the Caribbean Series baseball tournament the at Rod Carew stadium in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

Second baseman Gustavo Nunez, of Dominican Republic's Estrellas Orientales, forces out Rodrigo Orozco Jr., of Panama's Los Toros de Herrera, in the third inning of the Caribbean Series baseball tournament at the Rod Carew stadium, in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

Starting pitcher Carlos Teller of Panama's Los Toros de Herrera, throws the ball during the second inning against Dominican Republic's Estrellas Orientales during the Caribbean Series baseball tournament, at Rod Carew stadium in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

Keury De La Cruz, right, of Panama's Los Toros de Herrera, is tagged out in second base by Alfredo Reyes, of Dominican Republic's Estrellas Orientales, during the second inning on the Caribbean Series baseball tournament at Rod Carew stadium in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

Dominican Republic's Estrellas Orientales' teammates celebrate Emilio Gustave and Moises Sierra score runs against Panama's Los Toros de Herrera, in their sixth inning during the Caribbean Series baseball tournament the at Rod Carew stadium in Panama City, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. (AP PhotoArnulfo Franco)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared ready to deal another setback to transgender people and uphold state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams.

The court's conservative majority, which has repeatedly ruled against transgender Americans in the past year, signaled during more than three hours of arguments it would rule the state bans don't violate either the Constitution or the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.

More than two dozen Republican-led states have adopted bans on female transgender athletes. Lower courts had ruled for the transgender athletes who challenged laws in Idaho and West Virginia.

The legal fight is playing out against the backdrop of a broad effort by President Donald Trump to target transgender Americans, beginning on the first day of his second term and including the ouster of transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.

The justices are evaluating claims of sex discrimination lodged by transgender people versus the need for fair competition for women and girls, the main argument made by the states.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who coached his daughters in girls basketball, seemed concerned about a ruling that might undo the effects of Title IX, which has produced dramatic growth in girls and women's sports. Kavanaugh called Title IX an “amazing” and “inspiring” success.

Some girls and women might lose a medal in a competition with transgender athletes, which Kavanaugh called a harm “we can’t sweep aside.”

The three liberal justices seemed focused on trying to marshal a court majority in support of a narrow ruling that would allow the individual transgender athletes involved in the cases to prevail.

A ruling for West Virginia and Idaho would effectively apply to the other two dozen Republican-led states with similar laws.

But the justices soon might be asked to decide about the laws in an additional roughly two dozen states, led by Democrats, that allow transgender athletes to compete on the teams that match their gender identity.

The outcome also could influence separate legal efforts by the Trump administration and others seeking to bar transgender athletes in states that have continued to allow them to compete.

In the Idaho case, Lindsay Hecox, 25, sued over the state's first-in-the-nation ban for the chance to try out for the women's track and cross-country teams at Boise State University in Idaho. She didn’t make either squad because “she was too slow,” her lawyer, Kathleen Hartnett, told the court Tuesday, but she competed in club-level soccer and running.

Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, was in the courtroom Tuesday. She has been taking puberty-blocking medication, has publicly identified as a girl since age 8 and has been issued a West Virginia birth certificate recognizing her as female. She is the only transgender person who has sought to compete in girls sports in West Virginia.

Pepper-Jackson has progressed from a back-of-the-pack cross-country runner in middle school to a statewide third-place finish in the discus in just her first year of high school.

Prominent women in sports have weighed in on both sides. Tennis champion Martina Navratilova, swimmers Summer Sanders and Donna de Varona and beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh-Jennings are supporting the state bans. Soccer stars Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn and basketball players Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart back the transgender athletes.

In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled LGBTQ people are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace, finding that “sex plays an unmistakable role” in employers’ decisions to punish transgender people for traits and behavior they otherwise tolerate.

But last year, the six conservative justices declined to apply the same sort of analysis when they upheld state bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

Chief Justice John Roberts signaled Tuesday he sees differences between the 2020 case, in which he supported the claims of discrimination, and the current dispute.

The states supporting the prohibitions on transgender athletes argue there is no reason to extend the ruling barring workplace discrimination to Title IX.

Idaho's law, state Solicitor General Alan Hurst, said, is “necessary for fair competition because, where sports are concerned, men and women are obviously not the same.”

Lawyers for Pepper-Jackson argue that such distinctions generally make sense, but that their client has none of those advantages because of the unique circumstances of her early transition. In Hecox's case, her lawyers want the court to dismiss the case because she has forsworn trying to play on women's teams.

NCAA president Charlie Baker told Congress in 2024 that he was aware of only 10 transgender athletes out of more than a half-million students on college teams. But despite the small numbers, the issue has taken on outsize importance.

Baker's NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women’s sports after Trump, a Republican, signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

A decision is expected by early summer.

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court as it hears arguments over state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court as it hears arguments over state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Protesters wave transgender pride flags outside the Supreme Court as it hears arguments over state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)

Becky Pepper-Jackson poses for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)