CHICAGO — Former Slippery Rock University basketball player Ken Ottrix was selected in the first round of the Premier Basketball League draft Thursday by the Vermont Frost Heaves.

Ottrix was the seventh selection overall. A 6-foot-9, 220-pound post player, he transferred to The Rock from Ohio University for his senior season.

Ottrix averaged 9.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game for SRU in 2007-08. He played for Seattle of the International Basketball League last year.

PITTSBURGH — Former Pirates infield Carlos Garcia was hired as the team's first base coach and infield instructor.Garcia replaces Perry Hill, who quit after one season with the Pirates. Garcia spent the last two seasons as the minor league infield coordinator.Garcia played for the Pirates from 1990-96 during a major league career that lasted until 1999 and was their only player chosen for the 1994 All-Star game in Pittsburgh. He was the Seattle Mariners' third base coach and infield instructor from 2005-07.

HARRISBURG — A new federal report says higher water temperatures and low levels of oxygen are probably to blame for periodic die-offs of baby smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River.The U.S. Geological Survey report issued Thursday addressed a series of mass deaths of the smaller fish from bacterial infections in recent years.Investigators say the best places for smallmouth bass nurseries are slow-moving shallows along the river margins, and they're also areas with lower levels of oxygen.They say another likely culprit is water temperature.The river's daily mean water temperature near Harrisburg is about 1.4 degrees warmer than it was in the mid-1970s.