BASEBALL
The morning after combining for 21 runs, the Somerset Patriots topped the Portland Sea Dogs 1-0 Wednesday in an Eastern League game at Bridgewater, New Jersey.
Oswald Peraza hit a home run in the fourth inning – one of only three hits allowed by Portland.
Peraza, on a rehab assignment from the New York Yankees as he works his way back from a shoulder injury, led off the bottom of the fourth with a line drive off Angel Bastardo that cleared the fence in left-center for his third homer in six rehab games.
Bastardo struck out eight, allowing three hits and one walk over five innings. CJ Liu, just back from the injured list, pitched three hitless innings with five strikeouts and one walk.
The Sea Dogs, who beat the Patriots 11-10 on Tuesday night, were held to four hits – two by Marcelo Mayer.
COLLEGE
GOLF: Cole Anderson of Camden shot a 2-over 72 to help Florida State qualify for the NCAA championships by placing second in a regional at Stanford, California.
Anderson finished the three-day regional at 5-under 205, in a tie for 10th place. Max Herendeen of Illinois was the regional champion at 13 under, and Illinois also took the team title.
Meanwhile, Caleb Manuel and his Georgia team failed to advance, as it tied for seventh place in Austin, Texas. Only the top five teams in each regional go on to the NCAA championships, to be held May 24-29 in Carlsbad, California. Manuel shot an 8-over 79 in his final round, for a three-day total of 11 over.
HOCKEY
NHL: Connor Ingram, the goaltender who shared his battle with an undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder that led him to drink to cope with anxiety and has blossomed into a full-time NHL player, has won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.
Ingram had a breakout performance for the Arizona Coyotes this past season, years removed from seeking and receiving help from the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program, which is run jointly by the league and union and has been in the headlines lately for others’ participation.
The other finalists were Calgary’s Oliver Kylington, who stepped away for more than a year and a half for mental health reasons, and Carolina’s Frederik Andersen, who missed several months this season while dealing with blood clotting issues. The Masterton is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association.
PWHL: Toronto’s Natalie Spooner will miss the rest of the playoffs because of a knee injury.
The team put the league’s regular-season leading scorer on long-term injured reserve after Spooner was injured during a collision with Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle during Game 3 of the teams’ semifinal series on Monday. After delivering a clean hit, Zumwinkle appeared to fall awkwardly on the right knee of Spooner, who crawled off the ice and onto the bench before limping down the tunnel in pain.
Spooner, 33, led the PWHL in its inaugural season with 20 goals and 27 points in 24 games.
Toronto leads Minnesota 2-1 in the best-of-five series and can move on to the PWHL final with a road win Wednesday night. Boston already advanced to play for the Walter Cup by beating Montreal in the other semifinal.
FEDERAL PROSPECTS HOCKEY LEAGUE: The minor league hockey team that will begin play next season in the home of the University of Georgia paid homage to the city’s rich musical heritage by choosing a nickname made famous by one of its most famous bands.
The B-52s released their quirky, crustacean-themed song “Rock Lobster” in the late 1970s. Now, it’s moving from the beach to the ice to adorn an expansion team in the league.
The venerable band endorsed the new moniker in a statement released by city officials.
The Rock Lobsters will play in a 5,500-seat arena that has been constructed in the Classic Center complex, where the B-52s played the final show of their farewell tour in January 2023. The band has continued to perform in Las Vegas residencies.
The FPHL is a third-tier, independent league that had 11 teams this season, stretching from the Louisiana bayou to upstate New York. Athens and Danville, Illinois are set to join for the 2024-25 season.
A fan vote of more than 8,000 participants resulted in the Athens Rock Lobsters edging out another music-themed name, the Classic City Panic, which would’ve honored the Athens rock band Widespread Panic.
IDITAROD
OBIT: Rick Mackey, the winner of the 1983 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, has died of lung cancer, his daughter told The Associated Press. Mackey, who died Monday, was 71.
The Mackey name is closely tied to the history of the Iditarod, the grueling race that takes mushers and their dog teams 1,000 miles across the Alaska wilderness to the finish line on the Bering Sea coast. Rick’s father, Dick, won the race in 1978, and his late brother, Lance, won an unprecedented four straight championships from 2007 through 2010.
Rick Mackey was diagnosed with lung cancer two weeks after his brother died of cancer in September 2022, according to Rick Mackey’s daughter, Brenda Mackey.
TENNIS
ITALIAN OPEN: Danielle Collins beat former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-3 to reach the semifinals at Rome to extend her record to 19-1 since early March..
Collins underwent surgery in 2021 to treat endometriosis and has said she wants to have a child — which is why she plans to retire at the end of the year.
Collins’ semifinal opponent will be Aryna Sabalenka, who showed no ill-effects from her previous marathon match as she eased past Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, 6-2, 6-4.
All three top-ranked women have reached the final four in Rome as the other semifinal pits Swiatek against No. 3 Coco Gauff.
In men’s action, 29th-seeded Alejandro Tabilo of Chile extended his surprising run by beating Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 6-4 to follow up his upset victories over Novak Djokovic and Karen Khachanov in the previous two rounds.
TV: The U.S. Open men’s final will shift to ABC from ESPN this year — but the women’s title match will remain on the cable outlet a year after Coco Gauff won the Grand Slam tennis tournament.
This will be the first time ABC airs the men’s final, ESPN said. The match is on Sept. 8. The women’s final in Flushing Meadows is the day before.
SOCCER
MLS: Major League Soccer suspended multiple players for their involvement in an incident following New York City FC’s 3-2 win over Toronto FC last weekend, the league announced.
Toronto Coach John Herdman, defender Richie Laryea and goalkeeper Sean Johnson were suspended for their team’s home match against Nashville.
Toronto forward Prince Owusu and New York City defender Strahinja Tanasijevic each received red cards for their involvement. Owusu also was suspended for the Nashville match, and Tanasijevic for his team’s home match against Philadelphia.
• Austin FC’s Q2 Stadium will host the 2025 Major League Soccer All-Star match, Commissioner Don Garber announced, putting the young club in line to stage one of the league’s premier annual events.
The state-of-the-art 20,738-seat stadium opened in 2021, the first year of play for the franchise. .
The exact date of the match and the opponent for the MLS all-stars team will be announced at a later date.
CYCLING
GIRO D’ITALIA: Italian cyclist Jonathan Milan sprinted to victory at the end of the 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia, winning a 129-mile stage from Foiano di Val Fortore, while Tadej Pogacar kept his firm grip on the overall leader’s pink jersey.
Pogacar maintained his lead of 2 minutes, 40 seconds over Daniel Martinez.
OLYMPICS: Olympic triathlete Taylor Knibb stunned even herself by winning the women’s time trial at the U.S. road cycling championships.
Now, she will have the opportunity to compete in two sports at this year’s Paris Games.
Knibb ripped over the flat, out-and-back course around Charleston, West Virginia, in 45 minutes, 54 seconds, beating prerace favorite Kristen Faulkner by 11 seconds. Three-time Olympian Amber Neben was 49 seconds back in third place.
Knibb also had previously qualified for Paris, albeit in the triathlon, when the 26-year-old from Washington, D.C., finished fifth at a test event held over the Olympic course at the historic Pont Alexandre III bridge last August.
BASKETBALL
NBA: The Brooklyn Nets are retiring the No. 15 jersey of Vince Carter, the high-flying guard who will be enshrined this year in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Carter played 4 1/2 seasons with the Nets while they were in New Jersey, averaging 23.6 points. He owns their single-season record with 2,070 points in the 2006-07 season.
Carter is third in franchise history in points and is in the Nets’ top 10 in numerous other categories.
He is the only player in NBA history to play in four decades. The NBA Rookie of the Year in 1999 with the Toronto Raptors, he was dealt by the Raptors to New Jersey on Dec. 17, 2004, and played with the Nets through the 2008-09 season. His last season, 2019-2020, was with the Atlanta Hawks.
Carter will become the seventh Nets player with a retired jersey. Along with Kidd, the others are Julius Erving, Buck Williams, Drazen Petrovic, “Super” John Williamson and Bill Melchionni.
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