COLLEGES
LSU’s national champion women’s basketball team will accept an invitation from President Joe Biden to visit the White House.
University spokesman Michael Bonnette confirmed LSU’s intentions on the matter on Thursday, a day after Tigers star forward Angel Reese suggested during a podcast interview that her team should celebrate their title with former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama rather than President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
Reese made the suggestion after saying she was not inclined to accept an apology from Jill Biden for suggesting that both LSU and runner-up Iowa be invited to the White House. President Biden did not follow through on that idea, inviting only LSU and men’s national champion Connecticut.
BASEBALL: Brogan Searle-Belanger and Jonathan Wilson each drove in four runs, and Southern Maine (6-12) scored 15 runs in the first three innings to earn a 15-8 win over St. Joseph’s in Gorham.
Searle-Belanger capped a seven-run first inning with a three-run double, then added two hits in an eight-run third, including an RBI single. Wilson had an RBI double in the first and a three-run homer in the third.
USM has won four in a row.
Jordan Valentino hit a two-run double and a two-run single for St. Joseph’s (8-11).
• Christopher Cimino was 4 for 4 with three RBI, and Corbin McAlpine allowed only two hits over six scoreless innings as Bates (9-7) earned a 9-1 win over Thomas (5-11) in Lewiston.
Jack Brennan was 3 for 3 with two RBI, John Nowak also drove in two runs, and Joe Bianchi hit a solo home run.
SOFTBALL: Kenzie Bessette and Makenzy Herron hit back-to-back RBI singles in the bottom of the eighth inning to cap the University of New England’s comeback from a six-run deficit as the Nor’easters (4-16, 1-3 Commonwealth Coast) salvaged a doubleheader split against Salve Regina (9-11, 3-1) with an 11-10 victory in Biddeford.
Bessette and Herron each finished the second game with three hits and three RBI. Abby Miner forced extra innings with a solo home run in the seventh.
Salve Regina won the opener, 8-0.
MEN’S HOCKEY: Freshman Luke Mittelstadt scored two third-period goals in two-and-a-half minutes, and top-ranked Minnesota beat Boston University 6-2 in the NCAA semifinals in Tampa, Florida.
The five-time national champion Gophers (29-9-1) will play in the title game Saturday against Quinnipiac or Michigan.
MEN’S BASKETBALL: UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. has declared for the NBA draft, with the senior deciding to forgo an extra year of eligibility available because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jaquez averaged 17.8 points and 8.2 rebounds this season while helping the Bruins to a 31-6 record this season. They lost to Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament after winning the school’s first Pac-12 regular-season title since 2013.
ROAD RACING
BOSTON MARATHON: Massachusetts gambling regulators denied a request to allow legal betting on this year’s Boston Marathon, citing concerns by the race’s organizers.
All four members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission who participated in the online meeting voted against the request by DraftKings.
Although the Boston Marathon attracts about 30,000 runners, the DraftKings proposal would have allowed bets to be placed only on the elite women’s and men’s runners.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR: The Hendrick Motorsports teams of points leader Alex Bowman and two-time winner William Byron were penalized by NASCAR for violations found in the Richmond postrace inspections.
NASCAR said the teams will lose 60 regular-season points and five playoff points apiece.
Bowman’s interim crew chief, Greg Ives, and Byron’s interim crew chief, Brian Campe, were suspended for two races starting after this week’s dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The two were also fined $75,000 each for what NASCAR said were modifications to the greenhouse – or center area – of the car.
Both were already filling in while Rudy Fugle (Byron’s crew chief) and Blake Harris (Bowman’s crew chief) served four-race suspensions for violations at Phoenix last month.
• Denny Hamlin’s penalties for hitting Ross Chastain from behind at Phoenix last month will stand, according to a decision by a NASCAR appeals panel.
Hamlin was fined $50,000 and docked 25 points after he acknowledged on his weekly podcast he intentionally wrecked Chastain on the last lap of the Phoenix race.
TENNIS
CHARLESTON OPEN: Top-seeded Jessica Pegula lost 10 straight games and trailed 4-0 in the final set before rallying to reach the quarterfinals in South Carolina.
Pegula, an American ranked No. 3 in the world, was up 4-0 in the second set against Irina-Camelia Begu on on the verge of a quick victory before losing 10 games in a row. Pegula dug in to win the final six game.
Others moving on included No. 2 seed Ons Jabeur, No. 3 seed Daria Kasatkina and No. 4 Belinda Bencic, the defending champion.
FOOTBALL
NFL: The New York Jets signed quarterback Tim Boyle to a one-year contract as a backup with experience playing in offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett’s system.
Boyle served as a backup in Green Bay for three seasons to Aaron Rodgers, who said last month his intention is to play for the Jets this season. The Packers and Jets have been in negotiations for several weeks to complete a trade that would send Rodgers to New York as the team’s starting quarterback.
In the meantime, Boyle joins a Jets quarterbacks room that includes Zach Wilson, who was the starter the past two seasons, and Chris Streveler, who spent most of last year on the practice squad.
SOCCER
ENGLAND: Frank Lampard, Chelsea’s record scorer and one of its greatest ever players, was hired as interim manager until the end of the season to give the club time to find a permanent replacement for the fired Graham Potter.
It will be Lampard’s second spell as Chelsea manager – he was fired in January 2021 after 18 months in charge and replaced by Thomas Tuchel – and said it was an “easy decision” to come back.
Lampard is seemingly as a short-term fix while Chelsea continues to talk to candidates for the job on a full-time basis. Former Barcelona and Spain coach Luis Enrique was reportedly in London on Wednesday to speak to Chelsea officials. Julian Nagelsmann, who was recently fired by Bayern Munich, has also been linked with the vacancy.
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