BASEBALL
Despite two home runs from Alex Binelas and another from Marcelo Mayer, the Portland Sea Dogs suffered their fourth loss in a row Thursday night, falling 10-5 to the Reading Fightin Phils in an Eastern League game at Hadlock Field.
Mayer staked Portland to a 1-0 lead with a home run in the first inning – his fifth since his promotion to Double-A just over three weeks ago. Binelas hit a two-run shot in the sixth and a solo blast in the eighth.
Reading, meanwhile, collected 15 hits against Sea Dogs starter Grant Gambrell (1-2) and three relievers.
NECBL: The Bristol Blues tied the game with a run in the bottom of the eighth and pushed across the winning run in the ninth for a 3-2 win over the Sanford Mainers in Bristol, Connecticut.
The Mainers wasted a strong outing by starting pitcher Jack Mullen of Freeport, who allowed five hits and one earned run in 71/3 innings.
Sanford scored on a groundout by Matthew Polk in the third inning and a sacrifice fly by Jeremiah Jenkins in the eighth.
COLLEGES
BASEBALL: Tommy White hit Camden Minacci’s first pitch into the left-field seats for a two-run homer in the 11th inning, giving LSU a 2-0 walk-off victory over No. 1 national seed Wake Forest to clinch a spot in the College World Series finals at Omaha, Nebraska.
The win sends the Tigers (52-16) to the best-of-three championship series against Florida, beginning Saturday night.
MEN’S BASKETBALL: UConn Coach Dan Hurley has cashed in on the Huskies’ national championship, agreeing to a six-year, $32.1 million contract, the school announced.
The deal, which runs through 2029, will pay Hurley an average of $5.35 million per season and includes incentives that could push his compensation higher, the school said. The school originally said the deal was worth $31.5 million, but said later that it had miscalculated the value.
The contract replaces a package signed in 2018 when Hurley was hired that paid him about $3 million per season.
FOOTBALL: Deion Sanders is scheduled to undergo surgery for a blood clot in each leg, the University of Colorado coach revealed in a video he posted.
Sanders explained in the video on YouTube that his doctor found a blood clot in both legs, including one in his left thigh. He has struggled with the left foot since having two toes amputated in 2021 because of blood clot issues while at Jackson State.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Tiffany Hayes hit a season-high four 3-pointers and scored 21 points, Dijonai Carrington added 17 points, and the visiting Connecticut Sun beat the Minnesota Lynx, 89-68.
• Elena Delle Donne had 18 points and eight rebounds, Natasha Cloud added 16 points, and the Washington Mystics won at Chicago, 80-59, for the Sky’s fifth straight loss.
TENNIS
QUEEN’S CLUB: Carlos Alcaraz surprising looked quite at home on the lush green surface while Jiri Lehecka, 6-2, 6-3, to reach the quarterfinals in London.
Alcaraz will next play qualifier Grigor Dimitrov, the 2014 champion. Dimitrov beat eighth-seeded Francisco Cerundolo, 6-3, 7-5.
Adrian Mannarino ousted third-seeded Taylor Fritz of the United States, 6-4, 7-6 (7).
BERLIN OPEN: Second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and seventh-ranked Coco Gauff lost to Russian players in the second round of the grass-court event in Germany.
Sabalenka was beaten 6-2, 7-6 (2) by Veronika Kudermetova despite improving after an error-strewn start. Gauff lost 6-4, 6-0 to Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Caroline Garcia, Petra Kvitova and Maria Sakkari were the only seeded players to reach the quarterfinals.
BIRMINGHAM CLASSIC: Venus Williams, in her second match back after a six-month layoff because of a hamstring injury, rallied to force a third set despite needing a medical timeout but lost 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to second-seeded Jelena Ostapenko in the second round of the grass-court tournament in England.
Top-seeded Barbora Krejcikova reached the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over fellow Czech player Tereza Martincova.
HALLE OPEN: Andrey Rublev and Jannik Sinner reached the quarterfinals in Germany, while defending champion Hubert Hurkacz was eliminated after a dramatic final-set tiebreaker against Tallon Griekspoor.
OLYMPICS
BOXING: The International Boxing Association was banished from the Olympic family on Thursday, ending a years-long dispute fueled by defying advice and instructions from the IOC. Boxing, however, will keep its status as an Olympic sport at the 2024 Paris Games.
The International Olympic Committee voted to derecognize the IBA at a specially called meeting – an outcome that was inevitable after being recommended two weeks ago by the executive board, a body chaired by IOC President Thomas Bach.
The vote was 69-1, with 10 members abstaining.
The IOC is already overseeing boxing competitions for the Paris Olympics without IBA involvement, as it did for the Tokyo Games in 2021.
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