BASEBALL
Automatic runner Michael Beltre scored on a groundout in the 10th inning, lifting the Somerset Patriots to a 5-4 win Thursday against the Portland Sea Dogs at Hadlock Field.
Devlin Granberg hit his first Double-A home run – a two-run shot in the first inning – and finished with three RBI for the Sea Dogs. Ronaldo Hernandez doubled home Triston Casas to tie the game in the eighth.
EDGE WOOD BAT LEAGUE: Dom Tracy struck out eight while pitching a two-hitter in Game 1, and Bennett Smith allowed only two hits in Game 2 as Falmouth swept a doubleheader against Oak Hill, winning 5-1 and 11-1 in Falmouth.
Eban Daniels hit a double and a triple for Falmouth in the opener. Miles Gay and Cody Bowker each had three hits in the second game.
• Sam Carter drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh inning as Greely completed a doubleheader sweep against Yarmouth with a 5-4 win in Cumberland.
Ryan Kolben and Owen Cook combined for a three-hitter in Game 1, which Greely won 5-0. Zach Johnston and Ryder Simpson each had an RBI single during a five-run sixth.
Johnston got the win in relief in Game 2.
• Henry Bibeau put Portland ahead with a two-run single in the sixth inning and struck out three in two scoreless innings of relief, lifting the visitors to a 9-5 win at Biddeford.
Matt Gonneville had two hits for Biddeford.
NECBL: Parker Landwehr’s two-run homer capped a three-run ninth inning as the Vermont Mountaineers (9-6) rallied for a 4-3 win over the Sanford Mainers (3-9) at Goodall Park.
Evan Sleight hit an RBI single and Pierce Gallo doubled home a run for Sanford. Ubaldo Lopez went 2 for 3 and scored twice.
GOLF
Lizette Salas kept bogeys off her card at tough Atlanta Athletic Club and posted a 5-under 67 for the first-round lead in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Johns Creek, Georgia.
Salas had one of five rounds in the 60s from the early wave, and her lead held up through the afternoon. She’s one stroke ahead of Charley Hull, and two ahead of seven players.
Nelly Korda, who last week became the first two-time winner on this LPGA Tour season of parity, was among a large group at 70 after making a long birdie putt on the 18th.
Inbee Park, the seven-time major champion and Olympic gold medalist, made a triple bogey on the eighth hole and sank a 75-foot birdie putt on the 18th for a 71.
PGA: Satoshi Kodaira and Kramer Hickok each shot a PGA Tour career-best 7-under 63 to share the first-round lead in the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut.
Defending champion Dustin Johnson stumbled early with a bogey on the second hole and then a double on No. 3. He finished with a pair of birdies to end the day at 70.
Two-time Travelers champion Phil Mickelson sank a 64-foot putt for birdie on the par-4 ninth hole and shot a 69.
CHAMPIONS TOUR: Steve Stricker holed a bunker shot on the par-3 12th for a birdie, ran off three straight birdies at the end of his opening nine holes and kept bogeys off his card for a 7-under 63 and a four-shot lead over Ken Duke and Paul Broadhurst at the Senior Players Championship in Akron, Ohio.
EUROPEAN TOUR: The threat of lightning caused the first round of the BMW International Open in Munich to be suspended with Wade Ormsby the clubhouse leader.
Ormsby, Sam Horsfield, Masahiro Kawamura and Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez were all at 7 under when the round was suspended. Only Ormsby had completed his round.
FOOTBALL
NFL: The Pittsburgh Steelers released six-time Pro Bowl guard David DeCastro in a surprise move.
DeCastro attended the team’s mandatory minicamp last week but did not participate in full-team drills. He was entering the final season of a five-year $50 million contract he signed in 2017.
TENNIS
WIMBLEDON: Reigning U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem pulled out of Wimbledon and two other tournaments because of an injured right wrist. Thiem would have been seeded No. 4 at the All England Club, where main-draw action begins Monday.
The 27-year-old from Austria retired during the opening set of his first match at the Mallorca Open grass-court tuneup tournament this week, citing his wrist. Thiem then went to Barcelona for additional tests, which found what his management team said is a “detachment of the posterior sheath of the ulnar side of the right wrist.”
SOCCER
GERMANY: Bundesliga club Leipzig signed 18-year-old U.S. attacking midfielder Caden Clark from the New York Red Bulls.
Clark signed a contract through 2024. Leipzig immediately loaned him back to the Red Bulls and he will finish the 2021 season in Major League Soccer before going to the Bundesliga.
Clark has four goals in eight games for the Red Bulls this season.
RULE CHANGE: The away-goals rule was abolished by UEFA after 56 years as a fundamental way of deciding matches in its European club competitions. The move was often proposed in recent years by club coaches who felt an idea from the 1960s was no longer relevant.
Games now tied on aggregate score after the regulation 90 minutes in the second leg will go direct to extra time and then to a penalty shootout.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Kahleah Copper and Diamond DeShields each scored 18 points and the visiting Chicago Fire beat the New York Liberty 91-68 for their franchise-record seventh consecutive victory.
Candace Parker added 12 points and 11 rebounds and Courtney Vandersloot had 13 points and nine assists for Chicago (9-7), which also routed New York (7-8) on Tuesday night.
• Satou Sabally had 15 points and nine rebounds, Marina Mabrey added 14 points and the visiting Dallas Wings beat Indiana, 89-64, for the Fever’s 11th straight loss.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton voiced concern for fans visiting next month’s British Grand Prix, calling the decision to allow a full capacity crowd at Silverstone “a bit premature” amid the rising number of coronavirus cases.
Organizers announced they received government approval to host up to 130,000 fans for the July 18 race, but Hamilton said he was feeling “split” about the decision.
“I watch the news, so I hear about the cases going up in the UK. On that side I’m worrying for people, naturally,” Hamilton said. “I know that the UK rates have increased since people are loosening up a bit and not everyone is vaccinated. There is less people being in hospital but it feels a bit premature to me. I hope we learn something from it, and I hope people stay safe and keep their masks on.”
The announcement came after a day with more than 16,000 new confirmed cases in the United Kingdom – the highest number since early February. The figure marked a rise of nearly 5,000 compared to Tuesday, and of over 7,000 compared to last Wednesday.
WEIGHTLIFTING
DOPING INVESTIGATION: A culture of alleged corruption among international weightlifting officials was detailed Thursday in an investigative report of covered-up doping cases for athletes who won Olympic and world championship medals.
Three of the sport’s longtime leaders – former International Weightlifting Federation president Tamás Aján, vice president Nicolae Vlad and executive board member Hasan Akkus – were charged with a range of complicity and tampering offenses under the World Anti-Doping Code. Alleged misconduct for a decade up to 2019, including 146 unresolved doping cases, was laid out in a 50-page document. The investigation was run by the International Testing Agency, which manages anti-doping programs for Olympic sports.
Reasons for the failures to prosecute some doping cases ranged from “chaotic organizational processes” and errors to “outright negligence, complicity, or – at worst – blatant and intentional cover-ups,” ITA investigators wrote. A total of 29 cases cannot be prosecuted due to destroyed evidence or expiring statute of limitations.
Aján and Vlad were implicated in allowing a woman from Vlad’s home country, Romania, whom they knew was implicated in doping offenses, to compete and win a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. The lifter, Roxana Cocoș, was stripped of her medal years later when retests revealed her steroid use.
The ITA has proposed lifetime bans for Aján and Vlad, while Akkus has been offered a four-year ban. If they don’t accept the bans, the ITA will prosecute the charges at the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s anti-doping tribunal.
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