BASEBALL
A throwing error by pitcher Theo Denlinger on a sacrifice bunt attempt allowed the winning run to score in the bottom of the 12th inning as the Hartford Yard Goats beat the Portland Sea Dogs 4-3 in an Eastern League game Thursday night at Hartford, Connecticut.
Portland tied the game at 1-1 in the ninth inning on a home run by Niko Kavadas, then both teams scored once in the 10th and 11th.
Grant Gambrell, making his Double-A debut for the Sea Dogs, took a perfect game into sixth inning before allowing a leadoff home run to Drew Romo. Gambrell struck out eight, walked none and allowed two hits over six innings.
COLLEGES
BASEBALL: Quinn McDaniel’s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth inning gave Maine (27-19, 17-5) a 6-5 win over Bryant (26-21, 12-10) in an America East game at Orono.
Ryan Turenne and Jake Rainess homered for the Black Bears during a five-run fifth inning that erased a 4-0 deficit.
SOFTBALL: Kat Yuzefpolsky had two hits and two RBI and Rachel Moore hit a solo home run to lead Tufts (38-4) to a 9-3 win over Husson (30-13-1) in an NCAA Division III regional opener at Medford, Massachusetts.
Julia Gregoire homered for Husson, which plays a losers’ bracket game Friday against Cabrini. Katie Raymond and Tatyanna Biamby each had an RBI single.
TENNIS
ITALIAN OPEN: The right thigh injury that forced top-ranked Iga Swiatek to retire during her Italian Open quarterfinal “shouldn’t be anything serious,” the Polish player said.
Swiatek had to stop playing during the third set against Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in a match that started late Wednesday evening.
“I felt pain in my right thigh. It was pretty sudden. At the beginning I didn’t really know if it was serious or not,” Swiatek said. “We did an examination with the physio afterwards. It shouldn’t be anything serious, so I’m pretty positive that I’ll be back soon.”
Swiatek will be aiming for a third French Open title – and second straight – when the clay-court Grand Slam begins in 10 days.
• Third-ranked Daniil Medvedev beat German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann 6-2, 6-2 to reach the Italian Open semifinals in Rome after losing his opener in his three previous appearances at clay-court tournament.
His semifinal opponent will be Stefanos Tsitsipas, who defeated Borna Coric 6-3, 6-4 to reach the last four in Rome for the third time.
SOCCER
ENGLAND: Newcastle is one win away from a return to the Champions League after strengthening its hold on third place in the Premier League with a 4-1 win at home against Brighton.
Three more points would guarantee Newcastle a top-four finish and an automatic spot in the Champions League, a competition the club last played in 20 years ago. The team’s remaining games are at home against next-to-last Leicester and at Chelsea.
The loss for sixth-place Brighton all but ended its top-four hopes, leaving the team to focus on finishing in fifth or sixth place and getting into the Europa League.
• Liverpool Manager Jurgen Klopp was handed a two-match ban for questioning the integrity of a Premier League referee, with his poor disciplinary record and failure to heed previous conduct warnings counting against him.
Klopp, who was also fined 75,000 pounds ($93,000), will not be in the technical area for Liverpool’s next-to-last game of the season – at home Saturday against Aston Villa – but the second match of his punishment has been suspended until the end of next season.
MLS: Major League Soccer has awarded San Diego its 30th franchise, which is set to join the league in 2025.
The expansion team announced will be owned by billionaire Mohamed Mansour and the Sycuan Tribe, the first Native American tribe to have an ownership stake in a professional soccer team. The ownership group includes San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado.
EUROPA LEAGUE: Roma reached the Europa League final by holding Bayer Leverkusen to a 0-0 draw in Germany, going through 1-0 on aggregate after winning the first leg of the semifinal at home.
Roma will face six-time champion Sevilla, which knocked out Juventus with a 2-1 win after extra time to prevent an all-Italian final.
The final is May 31 in Budapest, Hungary.
CYCLING
GIRO D’ITALIA: Nico Denz won the 12th stage for his first victory in a Grand Tour, while Geraint Thomas kept hold of the leader’s pink jersey as the race prepares to head into the mountains.
Denz beat Toms Skujiņš and Sebastian Berwick at the end of the 115-mile leg from Bra to Rivoli in the Piedmont region.
Thomas remained two seconds ahead of Primož Roglič and 22 ahead of João Almeida in the overall standings.
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