BASEBALL
Matthew Polk was 3 for 5 with a home run, Logan Poteet drove in three runs and Justin Honeycutt pitched seven scoreless innings as the Sanford Mainers extended their winning streak to five with a 5-0 victory over the Upper Valley Nighthawks in a New England Collegiate Baseball League game Thursday night in White River Junction, Vermont.
Honeycutt struck out five, walked two and allowed six hits.
COLLEGES
CAA: The Colonial Athletic Association has changed its name to the Coastal Athletic Association.
The association of schools located in nine states along the Atlantic seaboard announced the change on Thursday to reflect its recent expansion, with members spanning from Massachusetts to South Carolina. The league still will be referred to as the CAA and continue to use the same conference logo.
The name change will carry over to the league’s football conference, which will be called the Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference but continue to be referred to as the CAA Football Conference. It has 15 members in 10 states, including the University of Maine.
CYCLING
TOUR DE FRANCE: Another Danish rider took the limelight as Kasper Asgreen joined an early breakaway and won a dash to the finish line in the 18th stage – a flat 114.6-mile route from Moûtiers to Bourg-en-Bresse.
Asgreen beat Pascal Eenkhoorn of the Netherlands and Jonas Abrahamsen of Norway.
His countryman, Jonas Vingegaard, took it easy this time, sitting comfortably in the main pack as he protected his huge overall lead. The defending champion leads two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar of Slovenia by 7 minutes and 35 seconds, with Sunday’s finale in Paris getting closer.
One of Vingegaard’s key teammates, Wout van Aert, withdrew from the race to be with his wife ahead of the birth of their second child.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Natisha Hiedeman scored 20 of her career-high 24 points in the third quarter, Alyssa Thomas had 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, and the Connecticut Sun ended the Atlanta Dream’s seven-game winning streak with an 82-71 victory in Uncasville, Connecticut.
The Sun trailed 59-57 with 2:38 left in the third quarter before going on a 16-0 run.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR: Justin Haley will leave Kaulig Racing at the end of this season and has signed a multi-year deal to drive for Rick Ware Racing starting in 2024.
Haley, 24, got his only Cup Series victory in July 2019 at Daytona in just his third start. He’s had a full-time ride at Kaulig since 2022 and has five top-10 finishes this season. He is 23rd in points ahead of this weekend’s stop at Pocono Raceway.
Haley also has four career Xfinity Series wins and three in Trucks.
TENNIS
PALMERO OPEN: Top-seeded Daria Kasatkina eased into the quarterfinals in Sicily with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Russian compatriot Tatiana Prozorova.
SOCCER
ENGLAND: Portugal midfielder Bruno Fernandes is the new captain of Manchester United.
Fernandes has 64 goals and 54 assists in 185 games since joining United in 2020 from Sporting Lisbon.
Fernandes succeeds central defender Harry Maguire, who made just eight league starts last season, leading to speculation about his future with the team.
• Newly acquired midfield star Declan Rice came on as a second-half substitute and helped Arsenal finish off a 5-0 victory over the MLS All-Stars on Wednesday night in Washington.
Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, Jorginho, Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz all scored — and those weren’t the only highlights for the many red-clad Arsenal supporters in the crowd at Audi Field.
Rice moved from West Ham to the Gunners for a British-record transfer fee last weekend, reported to be 105 million pounds ($138 million).
U.S. national team forward Folarin Balogun, whose days at Arsenal could be numbered, also came on for the London club.
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