COLLEGES

USM falls to Keene State in LEC baseball tourney opener

Christian Bourgea’s sacrifice fly brought home Connor Longley with the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, and sixth-seeded Keene State upended top-seeded Southern Maine 5-4 in the Little East Conference tournament opener Wednesday at Gorham.

The Huskies (28-10) face No. 5 Rhode Island College in an elimination game at 9 a.m. Thursday.

The Owls (15-21) scored twice in the first on an RBI single from Longley and a run-scoring double from Connor Walsh. The Huskies got one in the bottom of the inning when Jake Dexter scored on a double steal.

Keene State added a run in the fourth, then Southern Maine took the lead in their half of the inning on an RBI single by Matt Bender and a two-run single by Andrew Olszak.

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The Owls pulled even in the fifth when Longley drove in Zach Rollins with a double.

MEN’S LACROSSE: Charlie Fay powered Bates (15-1) with four goals and three assists as the Bobcats pulled away to a 23-10 victory over Plattsburgh State (12-6) at Lewiston in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament.

Clarke Jones added five goals for the Bobcats, Matt Chlastawa had three goals and two assists, and Kyle Webber also had three goals. Rob Strain stopped 11 shots for Bates.

Ryan Hubbard had four goals for the Cardinals.

The Bobcats next face Amherst on Saturday at Lewiston.

BROADCASTING

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OBITUARY: The wife of longtime ESPN broadcaster Chris Berman died in a traffic crash in Connecticut, the sports network’s president confirmed.

Katherine Ann Berman, 67, a teacher, was one of two victims in the two-vehicle crash at about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday in Woodbury, state police said. The other victim was identified by police as Edward Bertulis, 87, of Waterbury.

The Bermans have been married more than 33 years and have two adult children, Meredith and Doug.

TENNIS

MADRID OPEN: Defending champion Novak Djokovic recovered from a 3-0 deficit in the third set to defeat Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 to advance to the third round.

Djokovic rallied in the final set by breaking Almagro to go up 6-5 and served out to earn his 15th win of the season in over two hours. The victory left Djokovic on track to play a semifinal against four-time champion and home-crowd favorite Rafael Nadal, who struggled in a 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4 win over a Fabio Fognini of Italy in just under three hours.

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Nadal will play Nick Kyrgios of Australia, who defeated Ryan Harrison of the United States 6-3, 6-3. The second-seeded Djokovic will play veteran Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, who got past Gilles Simon of France 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (3).

Others advancing included Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych.

 In the women’s draw, third-seeded Simona Halep of Romania defeated 16th-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and eighth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia defeated Qiang Wang of China 6-4, 7-5

FOOTBALL

NFL: Alberto Riveron has been promoted to head of officiating.

Riveron was the league’s senior director of officiating under Dean Blandino, who left the NFL last month.

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Riveron, who was born in Cuba and moved to Miami at age 5. He joined the NFL as a game official in 2004 and became the league’s first Hispanic referee in 2008.

Riveron came off the field following the 2012 season to join the league office.

AUTO RACING

NASCAR CUP SERIES: The crew chief for Aric Almirola is the latest to earn a NASCAR suspension for a failed inspection.

Drew Blickensderfer was suspended three races because Almirola’s fourth-place car at Talladega Superspeedway had too much rear skew. He was also fined $65,000 and Almirola was docked 35 points.

It is the same penalty Brad Keselowski’s team earned earlier this year.

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OLYMPICS

2024 GAMES: International Olympic Committee officials have begun their three-day evaluation of Los Angeles’ bid for the 2024 Summer Games .

The members of the IOC’s evaluation commission were scheduled to hear a full day of presentations from L.A. bid leaders on Wednesday, then spend Thursday touring proposed venues.

L.A. is vying with Paris for 2024. The IOC has given strong indications it could name two winners, giving 2024 to one city and 2028 to the other.

The race is considered neck-and-neck, with Paris a sentimental favorite and L.A. – perhaps – a more fiscally reasonable option.


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