COLLEGES

UMaine beaten in tourney opener, falling to Stony Brook, 14-6

Fran Whitten belted a three-run home run, but it was not enough as the University of Maine baseball team dropped its opening game of the America East tournament 14-6 on Wednesday to host Stony Brook.

The Black Bears (26-27) face Albany at 11 a.m. today in an elimination game.

Travis Jankowski went 4 for 5 for the Seawolves (44-11), raising his average to .407. Pat Cantwell and Kevin Courtney each added two hits and three RBI, and Maxx Tissenbaum had three hits, scored three times and drove home two.

OLYMPICS

MEN’S BASKETBALL: The U.S. will open play against France on July 29 and close preliminary-round play against Argentina on Aug. 6.

Three of the Americans’ five games in pool play will start at 10:15 p.m. local time (5:15 p.m. EDT) and their two weekend games, including their opener, will start at 2:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m.).

FOOTBALL

NFL: The New England Patriots signed defensive end Chandler Jones, the first of two first-round picks selected in this year’s draft.

Jones, 23, was taken with the 21st overall pick after New England traded up to get it from Cincinnati. He was a 6-foot-5, 265-pound three-year starter at Syracuse.

Alabama linebacker Dont’a Hightower, who was taken with the 25th overall pick, remains unsigned.

• The Denver Broncos traded defensive back Cassius Vaughn to the Indianapolis Colts for fullback Chris Gronkowski.

• The San Francisco 49ers signed three-time All-Pro punter Andy Lee to a six-year contract extension through the 2018 season.

• Seattle Seahawks offensive tackle Allen Barbre was suspended for the first four regular-season games by the NFL for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.

TENNIS

OPEN DE NICE: Top-seeded John Isner advanced to the quarterfinals, beating Xavier Malisse 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) in the clay-court event at Nice, France.

Isner will face Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals. Davydenko topped seventh-seeded Denis Istomin, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

No. 2 Gilles Simon of France and No. 3 Nicolas Almagro of Spain also advanced.

Strasbourg International: Three-time champion Anabel Medina Garrigues and second-seeded Francesca Schiavone reached the quarterfinals in Strasbourg, France.

Garrigues labored to a 7-6 (9), 7-6 (2) win against Hsieh Su-wei, and Schiavone swept aside Mirjana Lucic, 6-1, 6-2.

TEAM WORLD CUP: The Czech Republic closed out a 3-0 victory over the United States as Frantisek Cermak and Radek Stepanek defeated Andy Roddick and Ryan Harrison 7-6 (5), 5-7, 10-8 in doubles at Duesseldorf, Germany.

CYCLING

Giro d’Italia: Joaquin Rodriguez won the tough 17th stage to keep his grip on the overall lead.

Rodriguez led a group of Giro favorites over the line in 5 hours, 24 minutes, 41 seconds, to claim his second stage victory of this year’s race.