HOCKEY

Pirates name Jeff Mannix play-by-play announcer

Jeff Mannix, former radio voice of the Lewiston Maineiacs, has been named play-by-play announcer for the Portland Pirates.

For the past four years, Mannix, a University of Maine graduate who grew up in Bangor, has covered news and sports for Inland Northwest Broadcasting in Moscow, Idaho, for the last four years.

All 76 of the Pirates’ regular-season games this season will be broadcast on WPPI-FM (95.5) and WPEI-FM (95.9).

COLLEGES

WOMEN’S HOCKEY: Missy Denk scored two goals and Myriam Croussette added one goal and two assists to lead the University of Maine to a 6-0 win over Sacred Heart in a season opener at Orono.

Brittany Ott and Candice Currier each finished with seven saves for the Black Bears, who outshot Sacred Heart, 63-14.

Maine also got one goal and one assist apiece from Melissa Gagnon, Danielle Ward and Katy Massey.

PREP SCHOOLS

BOYS’ SOCCER: Stephen Sherbahn and Ian McFarland each had one goal and one assist to lead Berwick Academy (2-1-1, 2-1 EIL) to a 4-0 win over Bancroft School (0-2-3, 0-2-1) at Berwick.

Blake Downey and Joe Reid each had one goal.

GIRLS’ SOCCER: Caitlyn Winders and Tatiana Bradley combined to make two saves for Berwick Academy (0-1-2) in a scoreless tie against Concord Academy at Berwick.

ROAD RACING

BOSTON MARATHON: Registration for the 2012 race closed and organizers said the new system was a success. More than 20,000 entrants signed up through a rolling admission weighted according to their qualification times.

The Boston Athletic Association changed the first-come, first-served system it had always used to allow those with the better times to register first.

The 116th edition of the world’s oldest annual 26.2-mile run is April 16.

AUTO RACING

NASCAR: Red Bull Racing expects to layoff 152 employees when it ceases operations in December.

Red Bull Racing filed a notice this week as part of North Carolina’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act that the layoffs were expected by Dec. 17. Red Bull is a two-car team that entered NASCAR in 2007. The Austrian-based energy drink company both owns and sponsors the team, which presently fields cars for Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers.

Kahne is moving to Hendrick Motorsports next season and Vickers is in the final year of his contract.

• Kevin Harvick sold the controlling interest in his Truck Series team to Eddie Sharp Racing, ending a 10-year ownership that included two series championships.

ESR will expand from a one-entry team to three in 2012, acquiring the No. 8 and No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. trucks.

TENNIS

MOSELLE OPEN: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied past Nicolas Mahut 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to move into the semifinals at Metz, France.

Third-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov advanced when Xavier Malisse retired with Dolgopolov leading, 6-3, 1-0. Gilles Muller upset second-seeded Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-4, and fourth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic beat qualifier Igor Sijsling, 6-4, 6-3.

— From staff and news services