BASEBALL
Sean Bouchard lined a tie-breaking RBI double to spark a seven-run fifth inning and Willie Abreu hit a grand slam as the Hartford Yard Goats rolled a 10-2 win over the Portland Sea Dogs on Friday night at Hadlock Field.
Johan Mieses blasted a two-run homer in the first inning for the Sea Dogs. Mieses is tied for the minor-league lead with 10 home runs.
BASKETBALL
NBA: Shaking off a spitting incident at Madison Square Garden, Trae Young dazzled in the first home playoff game of his career, scoring 21 points and dishing out 14 assists to lead the Atlanta Hawks to a 105-94 victory over the New York Knicks in Game 3 of their opening-round series Friday night.
Spurred on by a raucous crowd of 15,743, the Hawks pulled ahead 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.
Game 4 is Sunday in Atlanta.
WNBA: Jonquel Jones had 20 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, and the Connecticut Sun held off the Washington Mystics for an 86-81 win in Uncasville, Connecticut.
It was Jones’ sixth straight double-double for the Sun (6-1).
• Nneka Ogwumike scored 14 points with nine rebounds and Erica Wheeler added 13 points to help the Los Angeles Sparks beat the Chicago Sky, 76-61.
GOLF
PGA: Jordan Spieth shot a 4-under 66 to take the lead after the second round of the Charles Schwab Classic in Fort Worth, Texas.
Spieth, a Dallas native, was at 11-under 129 – one shot ahead of Jason Kokrak.
Phil Mickelson bogeyed two of his last three holes and missed the cut by one stroke.
LPGA: Danielle Kang won a friendly showdown with Lizette Salas, 4 and 3, to advance to the LPGA Match Play quarterfinals in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
Second-ranked Inbee Park also advanced, while top-ranked Jin Young Ko and No. 3 Sei Young Kim were eliminated.
CHAMPIONS TOUR: Mike Weir opened a four-stroke lead in the Senior PGA Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a 5-under 65 on a tough Southern Hills layout that baffled most of the players.
Weir was 7 under through 36 holes, with Steve Stricker (68), Rocco Mediate (69) and John Riegger at 3 under. Riegger had three holes left when play was called because of darkness at 8:31 p.m. Weir completed his round just minutes earlier.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Defending champion Bernd Wiesberger was two shots clear of fellow Austrian golfer Matthias Schwab after the second round of the Made in HimmerLand tournament in Farso, Denmark.
Wiesberger carded a 6-under 65 after an opening 66 and was 11 under overall.
TENNIS
EMILIA-ROMAGNA OPEN: Sebastian Korda beat sixth-seeded Tommy Paul in an all-American semifinal in Parma, Italy, to reach his first ATP final.
The 63rd-ranked Korda won 6-3, 6-3 in 82 minutes to book a spot against Italian wild card Marco Cecchinato, who defeated Jaume Munar of Spain, 7-6 (2), 1-6, 6-1.
AUTO RACING
TRUCKS: John Hunter Nemechek made it through a late crash, then held on to the lead on a restart 10 laps from the end to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Nemechek used a three-wide pass to gain the lead with 65 laps to go and was cruising to victory until the most severe crash of the race nearly spoiled things for the Kyle Busch Motor Sports racer.
Trey Hutchins III had slowed after hitting the wall and drifted down the track as Johnny Sauter and Drew Dollar hit Hutchins’ vehicle with great force.
Nemechek was the next racer through before the caution came out as flying debris appeared to damage his roof and knock out the car’s onboard camera.
After a lengthy cleanup, Nemechek again moved out front and finished in front of Chase Hocevar for his third victory of the season.
SOCCER
SUPER LEAGUE: Barcelona’s president pledged to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if UEFA punishes the club for its role in the would-be Super League competition.
“I told (UEFA President Aleksander) Ceferin that we were not going to apologize and that we were not going to pay a fine that is unjustifiable. If they fine us, we will go to the CAS,” Laporta said. “We will fight to protect the interests of Barcelona and to develop a model of soccer that is sustainable. All clubs are losing money.”
Of the dozen clubs that wanted to form the new breakaway league outside UEFA’s control, only Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus are still on board. The rest quickly abandoned the proposal amid a backlash by soccer authorities and fans.
This week, UEFA opened disciplinary cases against the three Super League holdouts who face being banned from the Champions League.
ITALY: Massimiliano Allegri returned to Juventus, taking over as coach only hours after Andrea Pirlo left the job.
Allegri won five straight Serie A titles with Juventus, including four league and cup doubles, and also reached two Champions League finals. He was fired by the club two years ago.
CYCLING
GIRO D’ITALIA: British cyclist Simon Yates attacked on the steep ascent to the finish to win the 19th stage in Alpe di Mera, Italy, but made only a small dent in Egan Bernal’s overall lead with two days remaining.
Yates attacked with more than four miles to go and held off the field on the double-digit gradient to the finish.
Bernal finished third, 28 seconds behind Yates, who remained third overall, trailing by 2 minutes, 49 seconds. Bernal increased his lead slightly over Damiano Caruso to 2:29.
The Giro finishes on Sunday in Milan with an individual time trial.
OLYMPICS
BADMINTON: Former top-ranked badminton player Saina Nehwal will miss the Tokyo Olympics after the Badminton World Federation froze the rankings and said there will be no more qualifying tournaments. Nehwal, who is from India, failed to finish among the top 16 in the rankings. She could have improved her current ranking of 22nd but two major tournaments – the Malaysian Open and the Singapore Open – were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The qualifying period for badminton is set to officially end on June 15, but the game’s governing body said the current rankings will not change.
“The Olympic qualification process is in effect closed as there are no additional opportunities for players to earn points,” BWF secretary general Thomas Lund said in a statement. “However, we still need to receive confirmations from National Olympic Committees and Member Associations, followed by any possible reallocations, and this will take a number of weeks to complete.”
GYMNASTICS: Germany’s Marcel Nguyen, who won Olympic all-around and parallel bars silver in 2012, will miss the Tokyo Olympics and fears his career may be over after injuring his right knee. Nguyen tore a cruciate ligament in his right knee on his dismount from the rings while training on Thursday in the run-up to the German national championships. He previously had the same injury in 2014 and missed the last world championships in Stuttgart in 2019 because of a shoulder operation.
The 33-year-old Nguyen said he was left “totally dejected” by his latest setback and feels he may not be able to return for next year’s home European championships in Munich either.
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