The Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed second-round pick LB Lavonte David to a four-year contract, the team announced.

David was the 58th overall selection out of Nebraska, starting all 27 games he played. In two seasons, he finished fourth in school history with 285 tackles, to go with 28 tackles for loss, 11.5 sacks and two interceptions.

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Increased passing scores for the FCAT reading test did not have the same negative effect as changes to the FCAT writing standards, preliminary results indicate.

Larger percentages of Florida’s ninth and tenth graders earned a passing score of 3.0 or better on the FCAT reading exam this year than they did a year ago. That’s despite complaints by superintendents across Florida that a higher “cut” score would lead to increased failures and more time and money spent on remedial work.

Early numbers show that 52 percent of ninth graders and 50 percent of tenth graders scored 3.0 or higher on the reading exam, up from 48 percent and 39 percent, respectively, a year ago.

In the Tampa Bay area, only the Pasco County results were immediately available. Pasco’s ninth and tenth graders exceeded the …

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Bucs defensive tackle Brian Price was at Los Angeles International Airport last week preparing to board a flight to Tampa when he got a phone call informing him that his sister Bridget had been involved an automobile accident.

For Price, who lost a second brother to a gang-related shooting eight years ago, the news was nearly too much to bear.

“He got the call, and it might have been his dad who told him Bridget has been in an accident and I don’t think it looks good,” said his agent Charles Price, who is no relation to Brian. “I don’t think Brian got to see her alive.”

Bridget, 30, the mother of 7- and 9-year boys, died almost immediately of injuries sustained in a car accident last week. The resulting grief and mental exhaustion led to a three-day hospital stay for Brian in Tampa that ended Thursday afternoon, his agent said.

According to Charles Price, Bridget was responsible for helping Brian overcome the shooting death of his two older brothers.

“It’s been a rough couple of years to say the least,” Charles Price said. “Especially where he’s coming from and it’s as if he can’t catch a break.”

Bridget was the victim of a hit-and-run accident that caused her car to ‘spin out of control,’ and head on into another vehicle, Price’s agent said.

His sister’s death exacted a heavy toll on Brian, who had planned to attend the Bucs’ first week of Organized Team Activities Tuesday. The Bucs have not commented on the absence of their second-round pick in 2009. But apparently, Brian became so mentally and physically exhausted that he was dehydrated and had to be hospitalized, his agent said.

“It was just a situation where like the stress of the whole situation made him sick,” Charles Price said. “He couldn’t hold anything down. He had headaches, a fever. In fact, he just got out of the hospital (Thursday). I can’t speak for him, but I think it was a combination of the mental and physical stress. I was at the funeral and there was just a lot of grief, a lot of anger. His body sort of shut down on him.”

Bridget’s death is just the latest in a tortuous string of tragedies that Brian has had to cope with. His 18-year-old brother Eddie was killed in a drive-by shooting while walking a girl to a bus stop in the gang-filled Crenshaw district when Brian was only 10-years old. Five years later, Brian’s brother Damon was shot in the back of the head by a so-called friend as he drove his car along Crenshaw Blvd.

“Most people wouldn’t see that much tragedy in a lifetime, let alone in their own family,” Charles Price said.

Damon’s shooting death sent Price into a spiral of plummeting grades and threatened to jeopardize his college football career. But as always, there was Bridget to lean on as his support.

After a stellar career at UCLA, Price was the 35th overall pick of the Bucs in 2009. The plan was for him to team with Oklahoma defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, the third overall selection by Tampa Bay, to form one of the best young pass-rushing tandems in the NFL.

But Price’s rookie season was only limited to five games. He was placed on Injured Reserve with a pelvic fracture and underwent separate surgical procedures to reattach both hamstrings.

Last season, Price struggled with conditioning and was limited to 24 tackles and three sacks despite playing in 15 games. Charles Price said he was working with sports therapist and trainer Alex Guerrero, who works with quarterback Tom Brady and running back LaDanian Tomlinson.

“Literally, prior to getting the news, he making great physical strides and had done all the preliminary work to have a great season,” Charles Price said. “None of that really seems important now. But this was just a setback in every way. I was at the funeral and to me it was one of the saddest things I’ve ever encountered.”

Bridget’s sons will remain in Los Angeles with their grandmother until school ends but Brian plans to adopt them both and invite them to live with him in Tampa.

“Obviously, he’s the only son now and there are a lot of young girls in the family,” Charles Price said. “He’s trying to be there, to be the strong one for his family. This is his third older sibling he has lost and Bridget was always there for him when his brothers died.”

Despite his loss, Brian is determined to get his NFL career back on track and could participate in team workouts next week, his agent said.

“I always thought the kid was super motivated and didn’t need any extra incentive to play hard,” Charles Price said. “There’s no doubt in my mind, he won’t stop now. The minute he puts it together physically, he’s going to be one of those players everyone is talking about in training camp and the preseason. That’s just how tough he is.”

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Astros 4, Brewers 0

HOUSTON — Jed Lowrie hit a two-run homer and J.A. Happ stranded eight runners over six innings for the Astros. Houston catcher Chris Snyder, who entered hitting .154, had two hits, including an RBI single after Lowrie’s homer in the fourth. The Brewers’ Shaun Marcum allowed a season-high nine hits.

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ST. PETERSBURG — With just one resolute dissenter, the St. Petersburg City Council voted Thursday to move forward with a new $ 50 million Pier.

The decision came after more than a dozen speakers tried to make a case for saving the current inverted pyramid and a lengthy discussion by council members, who spoke both of their reservations about the design and agreement and praised the merits of the contract.

The $ 4.7 million architectural and engineering services agreement with Michael Maltzan Architecture, designer of the new Pier, is the first for the project known as the Lens.

Thursday’s action kicked off a three-year process that will include demolishing the old Pier in the late summer of next year, constructing its replacement in 2014 and opening it in late 2015.

The agreement does not address a potential challenge posed by …

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BALTIMORE — Preakness favorite Bodemeister isn’t the only prominent 3-year-old Bob Baffert brought to Pimlico Race Course this week.

The Hall of Fame trainer is also looking for a victory today with unbeaten Mamma Kimbo in the Black-Eyed Susan, a Grade 2 race for 3-year-old fillies.

Today’s card also includes the Pimlico Special, which returns after a three-year absence. The $ 300,000 Grade 3 race has a nine-horse field, including Alternation, who takes a three-race winning streak into the Special.

Mamma Kimbo won her racing debut in February and backed it up with a wire-to-wire win in the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes. Despite her inexperience, Mamma Kimbo is the 7-5 favorite in the 10-horse field.

“Mamma Kimbo is very fast,” Baffert said. “She just goes and takes it as far as she can. Mile and an eighth, I’d feel better if it was a 1�, but she’s fast and she’s been training well, so we’ll see.”

The race is a day before Baffert saddles favorite Bodemeister in the Preakness.

“We treat every race as if it’s a big race,” he said. “We don’t get too caught up in all the hoopla.”

Fresh test: The Kentucky Derby is arguably the most stressful thoroughbred race in the United States, and horses in the field get only a two-week rest if they run in the Preakness. So it might seem logical that horses that didn’t run in the Derby would have an advantage at Pimlico by being fresh. But history refutes that. In the past decade, 64 horses have started in the Preakness without racing in the Derby, and only two have won. The most recent was the filly Rachel Alexandra in 2009, but she had raced in the Kentucky Oaks the day before the Derby.

Bittersweet memories: A year ago Graham Motion was one of the most popular figures at Pimlico. As the trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, he had the lone horse in the Preakness field with a shot at winning the Triple Crown. “The pressure is on you,” said Motion, who will saddle Went the Day Well in this year’s Preakness. “The two weeks between the Derby and the Preakness, I felt like I was holding my breath. You’re kind of walking on eggshells, hoping everything is going great with the horse.”

Animal Kingdom came in second, a half-length behind Shackleford. Motion can’t get the outcome out of his mind. “I was quite shocked to see Shackleford’s picture on the grandstand when I drove in (Thursday) morning. That was kind of a pit in my stomach,” he said.

Went the Day Well was fourth in the Derby. He has won two of his four starts this year.

Weak job market: Mario Gutierrez has been on the phone constantly since winning the Kentucky Derby aboard I’ll Have Another. Most of the messages he has gotten congratulate him on the win that lifted the jockey from Mexico out of obscurity. Few offer him more mounts.

He is still trying to crack the deep jockey colony in Southern California. Last weekend he had only four mounts at Hollywood Park. “Everybody knows that California racing has top trainers and top jockeys. I’m just glad to be riding with them,” he said. “I am getting a lot of calls, but not to ride.”

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Franchise place-kicker Connor Barth showed up to watch the Bucs’ first week of Organized Team Activities despite not having a contract. But by the time the workouts ended Thursday, Barth signed a four-year deal.

Terms of the contract were not released, but agent Robert Roche confirmed it is worth $ 13.2-million with $ 4-million guaranteed.

The Bucs placed the franchise player tag on Barth on March 1, which was worth $ 2.65-million on a 1-year deal. But both Barth and the Bucs were hopeful of reaching a long-term extension, and the one he signed Thursday will average $ 3.3-million per year.

“For the Bucs organization, (General Manager) Mark Dominik, Coach (Greg) Schiano and everyone to believe in me, to know that I’ll be their kicker for the next four years, is awesome,” Barth said in a statement released by the team. “It’s just an amazing opportunity and I want to continue to perform like I have and live up to their expectations. I want to thank everyone – the fans, everybody, the team behind me – and I’m looking forward to getting back on the field.”

Barth set a franchise-record by connecting on 92.9 percent of his field goals (26-of-28) last season, which ranked second in the NFL. That included making 15 consective field goal tries to end the season, the longest-active streak in the league. In the past two seasons, his 87.5 percent field goal percentage is the fourth-best in the NFL.

In a 39-19 loss to Carolina last season, Barth became only the third player in league history to make four of more 40-plus yard field goals in one half (50-, 47-, 46-, 44-yards).

Since joining the Bucs during the 2009 season, Barth has made 63-of-75 field goal attempts (84.0 percent) and is a perfect 71-of-71 on PATs.

“Every year is about trying to get better,” Barth told Buccaneers.com. “I just want to take it one kick at a time – you never want to forget about that. I don’t want to forget about what I did to get to this point and never lose sight of that – stay hungry, stay humble and do what I can to help this team win games.”

Barth’s path from a kicker released by both the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins to one of the highest-paid at his position in the league is remarkable.

After a great career at the University of North Carolina, Barth entered the NFL as a free agent with Kansas City in 2008. He was released at the end of the preseason in favor of Nick Novak, but re-signed to replace Novak, going 10-for-12 in field goal attempts in 10 games.

Barth spent the 2009 off-season with the Chiefs but was released and signed two weeks later by the Miami Dolphins, who also waived him that summer.

The Bucs had their own kicking problems in 2009. They had signed Jets free agent Mike Nugent, but he and Shane Andrus combined to go 2-for-7 in the first seven games. Barth was signed to replace them and went 14-of-19 in field goal attempts the rest of the way. That performance included making three field goals of 50-yards or more in his second game with the Bucs, appropriately enough, against the Dolphins in Miami.

The Bucs also announced they have signed WR Wallace Wright and WR Armahd Lewis and released T Mike Ingersoll and TE Tyler Urban. Wright has played in 53 career games over four seasons, all with the Jets. Lewis is an undrafted free agent from Central Washington University.

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Two pre-Memorial Day concerts, both free, should stir the crowds at the Dunedin Community Center.

CLEARWATER — The Dunedin Concert Band is tuned up and ready to present its annual traditional patriotic concert. This year’s concert title, “What So Proudly We Hail,” honors those who serve and have served the country in any safety service.

The band starts the concert with a piece called National Emblem, a march and tribute to the American flag. But the biggest piece the band performs is As All the Heavens Were a Bell. A wide-screen video honoring the 9/11 firefighters, police, emergency medical service and other first responders who helped rescue and find people trapped in the rubble, will run during the piece.

“Bring Kleenex,” said Dr. Louis Alan Zagar, the band’s music director and conductor. “It’s emotional and has caught all …

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Orioles 4, Royals 3

15 innings

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Adam Jones, 0-for-6 at that point, homered off Nate Adcock with one out in the 15th for Baltimore, which rallied to remain tied with the Rays for first in the AL East.

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More rain is forecast for Tampa Bay on Thursday after parts of the region were hit with more than two inches of rain over the past day.

Thursday’s forecast calls for about a 50 percent chance of rain in the morning, with the best rain chances coming before noon, according to the National Weather Service. The rain chances are then forecast to drop to 20 or 30 percent in the afternoon.

Thursday’s rain chances will be lower than yesterday and any storms are not expected to be as widespread as they were Wednesday night, which saw a strong line of storms sweep through, downing tree branches and causing some flooding

Largo had among the highest recorded rainfall totals with about 2.82 inches. Lutz saw about 2.65 inches. Numerous cities across the county saw more than an …

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