BASEBALL
Ryan Fitzgerald drove in the winning run with a single in the eighth inning Wednesday night as the Portland Sea Dogs edged the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 5-4 at Hadlock Field.
Triston Casas led off the eighth by reaching first on a fielding error. Two outs later, he went to third on a single to right by Tate Matheny and scored on Fitzgerald’s single.
Fitzgerald was 2 for 4 with two RBI.
NECBL: The Sanford Mainers picked up their first win of the season by beating the Vermont Mountaineers 5-4 at Goodall Park in Sanford in extra innings thanks to an error on a mishandled ball hit by Dominic Freeberger.
Cam Ridley scored the winning run from second base for the Mainers (1-3).
Freeberger was 1 for 4 with a walk and Dayne Leonard had a single and triple and two RBI.
Josh Joy pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing seven hits and two earned runs.
Vermont was led by Anthony D’Onofrio and Casey Mayes, who each had two hits.
OLYMPICS
The Olympic Village has traditionally been a fun place to be, housing thousands of young athletes and staff ready to party and share a few beers and bubbly toasts. But not at the Tokyo Olympics, which are to open in just over six weeks amid a pandemic. These are going to be the “no cheers” Olympics with testing and vaccinations taking priority over fun and games.
It’s not clear if alcohol will be allowed in the village, which will house 11,000 Olympic athletes and 4,400 Paralympians. Organizers say they have yet to decide on a policy, which is expected by the end of the month. Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the Tokyo organizing committee, said Wednesday it might be difficult to ban alcohol from the athletes’ private rooms in the village, but public areas in the village might be a different matter.
“In the case that they were to drink inside their own rooms — this is equivalent to cases where we are drinking in our own home.” Muto said, speaking to Japanese media on Wednesday after an online meeting with the International Olympic Committee executive board.
“Can we prohibit that? That’s not conceivable,” Muto added. “It would be very difficult to do so.”
But he said it might be banned from dining areas and other public areas in the village. Tokyo and much of the rest of the country is under a state of emergency, with many bars and restaurants closing early and banning alcohol sales. The emergency order ends on June 20 and it’s not clear if it will be extended.
HOCKEY
NHL: The Chicago Blackhawks agreed to an entry-level contract with Lukas Reichel after selecting the forward in the first round of the 2020 NHL draft.
Reichel’s three-year deal runs through the 2023-24 season with a $925,000 salary-cap hit. General Manager Stan Bowman said Reichel made “tremendous strides” during his second year with Eisbaren Berlin in Germany’s top professional league.
SOCCER
MLS: Major League Soccer’s All-Stars will meet their top Mexican league counterparts in Los Angeles on Aug. 25 in a game that was originally scheduled to take place last year but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The game against Liga MX players at Banc of California Stadium, home of Los Angeles FC of the MLS, represents a departure from the format for the past 15 All-Star games that had the best players in MLS facing European clubs. Los Angeles is a fitting location for the game — not only does it have one of the largest Latino populations in the world but it is a battleground for both leagues.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Liga MX Executive President Mikel Arriola were in LA on Wednesday to announce the game, which was originally scheduled to take place last July 29 and coincide with MLS’s 25th season until the pandemic curtailed those plans.
The match will be broadcast in the U.S. on Fox Sports 1 and Univision and on ESPN throughout Mexico and Latin America.
SUPER LEAGUE PROBE ON HOLD: UEFA put a hold Wednesday on its disciplinary case against Super League rebel clubs Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid, while the six Premier League clubs that tried to join the breakaway accepted a collective fine of 22 million pounds ($31 million).
The three clubs who refused to renounce the Super League project are facing a possible ban from the Champions League, although that now looks unlikely before next season. Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid won a ruling from a Spanish court in April that they could not be punished by Switzerland-based UEFA and FIFA. Their case was also referred by the judge in Madrid to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg which could weigh in if UEFA is breaching competition laws.
MATCH FIXING: A Russian referee was banned by UEFA for 10 years on Wednesday in a match-fixing case and Latvian club Ventspils must serve a seven-year ban from European competitions.
Sergey Lapochkin is banned from “exercising any refereeing activity at national and international level” until March 2031, UEFA said announcing verdicts from its disciplinary committee without specifying details.
Lapochkin, who was on the FIFA-managed list of international match officials since 2013, was provisionally suspended in March for failing to inform UEFA about an approach to corrupt a game.
That was reported to be Ventspils’ 1-0 loss to Bordeaux in a Europa League qualifying rounds game in July 2018.
UEFA said Ventspils is banned from European club competitions “up to and including the 2027-28 season.”
Two Ventspils officials charged with “fraud, bribery and/or corruption” and violating the integrity of games were also disciplined. Adlan Shishkanov was expelled from soccer for life and Nikolajs Djakins will serve a four-year ban.
U.S. HALL OF FAME: American national team defenders Steve Cherundolo and Christie Pearce have been elected to the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame along with Bolivian forward Jaime Moreno and former D.C. United general manager Kevin Payne.
The four will be inducted Oct. 2 at the hall along with former U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra and Colin Jose Media Award winner Andres Cantor, whose ceremonies were delayed from last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
GOLF
U.S. OPEN: Mikko Korhonen of Finland withdrew from the U.S. Open because of travel concerns getting to Torrey Pines. He was replaced in the field by Cole Hammer, the first alternate from the Columbus, Ohio, qualifier that featured the strongest field.
Korhonen has never played in the U.S. Open. The 40-year-old earned one of the 10 spots awarded to European Tour players. In the absence of a 36-hole qualifier in England because of travel restrictions in the United Kingdom, the 10 spots were determined by a points list earned over three European Tour events. Korhonen finished at No. 4.
Hammer, who played his first U.S. Open at Chambers Bay when he was 15, is now a junior at Texas and a two-time Walker Cup player. He was the odd man out Tuesday morning in a 5-for-4 playoff for the final spots in Ohio.
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