HIGH SCHOOLS
Thornton Academy senior pitcher/outfielder Cody Bowker is the Gatorade Maine Baseball Player of the Year.
A 2021 Varsity Maine All-State selection who will attend Georgetown University, Bowker led Thornton to the top seed in Class A South with a 15-1 regular-season record. As the team’s leadoff hitter, he has a .490 average with four home runs, 18 RBI and 29 runs scored. On the mound, the right-hander is 6-0 with two saves and a 0.48 ERA. In 44 innings, Bowker has struck out 74 and walked six.
“He’s just different. He does it on the mound and he’s probably the best hitter in the state,” said Thornton Coach Jason Lariviere. “He was very good last year, but the main difference this year is his command has been just unbelievable. He developed a couple other pitches and he’s a tough guy to get hits off and score off.”
BASEBALL
EASTERN LEAGUE: The Portland Sea Dogs and New Hampshire Fisher Cats were rained out Friday night in Manchester, New Hampshire, and are now scheduled to play a doubleheader Saturday, starting at 5:05 p.m.
Jay Groome is slated to start Game 1 for the Sea Dogs, who will be trying to end a six-game losing streak.
COLLEGES
BASEBALL: Top-eight national seeds Stanford, Texas A&M and East Carolina had easy wins on their home fields in NCAA regional openers.
Vanderbilt, which has reached the last two College World Series finals, continued its late-season swoon with a 3-2 loss to San Diego and will have to fight its way out of the losers’ bracket to advance.
Tommy Troy hit his third and fourth homers of the season and finished with a career-best four hits and five RBI in No. 2 Stanford’s 20-7 victory over Binghamton.
No. 5 Texas A&M scored seven of its runs with two outs in an 8-2 win over Oral Roberts.
No. 8 East Carolina scored its most runs in 108 all-time NCAA Tournament games in a 17-1 victory over Coppin State.
In College Park, Maryland, Ben Huber’s RBI double in the ninth inning gave third-seeded UConn an 8-7 win over second-seeded Wake Forest. Brendan Tinsman of Cape Elizabeth was 1 for 4 with a double and a run scored for Wake Forest.
Tinsman, a redshirt junior catcher, was named a third-team All-American on Thursday by Collegiate Baseball.
Going into Friday’s games, Tinsman ranked ninth in the nation with 23 home runs – the second-most in Wake Forest history. He also was hitting .349 with 65 RBI through 58 games, and led Atlantic Coast Conference catchers with 13 runners caught stealing.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Kahleah Copper scored 21 points, Candace Parker had five of her nine in the last 2:37 and the visiting Chicago Sky beat the Atlanta Dream, 73-65, after blowing a 20-point first-half lead.
• Sabrina Ionescu made 5 of 10 3-pointers and finished with 24 points, and Natasha Howard added 17 to lead the New York Liberty to a 74-70 win over the host Washington Mystics.
SOCCER
USSF CEO STEPPING DOWN: Will Wilson is quitting as CEO of the U.S. Soccer Federation ahead of the World Cup, making the surprising decision to leave the job after just 2 1/2 years.
The uncle of former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, Wilson said he will leave on Oct. 31, three weeks before the Americans open the World Cup in Qatar against Ukraine or Wales.
Under Wilson and President Cindy Parlow Cone, the USSF reached landmark collective bargaining agreements this year with the unions for the women’s and men’s national teams and settled a lawsuit by women players over equal pay. The organization signed a 10-year renewal of its apparel contract with Nike and a an eight-year English-language broadcast agreement with Warner Media that starts in 2023.
NATIONS LEAGUE: Denmark stunned France 2-1 in its opening match at the Stade de France, ending the world champion’s seven-match winning streak.
After Karim Benzema put the hosts in front, substitute Andreas Cornelius scored twice to earn Denmark its first win over France since the 2002 World Cup. Cornelius leveled with a fine volley, then hit the winner in the 88th minute.
France, which was unbeaten in its last 20 matches, next travels to Croatia, which lost to Austria 3-0 at home.
• Memphis Depay scored twice as the Netherlands produced its first win against bitter rival Belgium in 25 years, prevailing 4-1 in Brussels.
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