BASEBALL
Spencer Jones hit a grand slam to highlight a six-run seventh inning as the Somerset Patriots beat the Portland Sea Dogs 13-6 Wednesday night in an Eastern League game at Hadlock Field.
Somerset catcher Ben Rice was 4 for 6 with two home runs and five RBI. He scored four runs.
Blaze Jordan had a two-run double and Matthew Lugo a solo homer to help Portland take a 6-3 lead through six innings.
Sea Dogs reliever Ryan Zeferjahn started the seventh and gave up three straight singles before Jones hit his grand slam. The Patriots tacked on two more runs in the inning with the help of two errors by the Sea Dogs, who had five for the game. Zeferjahn got two outs in the inning before being replaced by Brendan Cellucci.
Portland made two errors in a two-run eighth inning for Somerset.
Despite the five errors, only one of the Patriots’ runs was unearned.
Third-place Portland fell six games behind Somerset in the Northeast Division and three games behind second-place Binghamton.
BASKETBALL
NBA: Referee Eric Lewis, 52, has retired effective immediately in the wake of a league investigation into whether he used a then-Twitter account to defend himself and other officials from online criticism.
The league announced his retirement less than three months after beginning an investigation into whether the 19-year NBA referee had violated league policy by commenting publicly on officiating without authorization from the league.
With his retirement, the NBA said its investigation into the social media activity has been closed.
• The NBA announced that Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks will play a preseason game in October against reigning EuroLeague champion Real Madrid in Spain.
The game will be the NBA’s eighth in the Spanish capital and 20th in Spain, and comes 35 years after an NBA team first played in the country in 1988.
Doncic, a four-time NBA All-Star and All-NBA First Team member, was just 13 when he joined Real Madrid and went on to become the youngest EuroLeague and EuroLeague Final Four MVP when he led Real Madrid to the 2018 title at age 19.
WORLD CUP: Slovenia, Puerto Rico and Greece picked up victories to complete the field of 16 teams for the second round.
Slovenia defeated Cape Verde 92-77, led by 19 points from NBA star Luka Doncic. Puerto Rico routed winless China 107-89 behind 22 points from former NBA player Tremont Waters. Greece defeated New Zealand 83-74 with 27 points from Ioannis Papapetrou.
Earlier in the day, Serbia, Georgia and Brazil also reached the second round. Serbia defeated South Sudan 115-83 with 25 points from 20-year-old Nikola Jovic. Georgia topped Venezuela 70-59 behind 25 points from Tornike Shengelia. Brazil beat Ivory Coast 89-77 with Yago Santos scoring 24 points and adding 12 assists.
Ten teams had already advanced: the Dominican Republic, Australia, Italy, Spain, the United States, Canada, Germany, Lativa, Lithuania and Montenegro.
• Anthony Edwards scored 22 points and the Americans completed an easy march through the group stage, beating Jordan 110-62 to improve to 3-0 and finish atop Group C. Second-round play for the U.S. starts Friday against Montenegro.
GOLF
PGA: Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland said he will have surgery to remove a lesion found on his brain.
Woodland, a four-time PGA Tour winner, announced on social media he was diagnosed with the lesion a few months ago and has been trying to treat the symptoms with medication.
SOCCER
MLS: Giacomo Vrioni scored unassisted in the 30th minute and Earl Edwards Jr. made it stand up as New England edged the New York Red Bulls 1-0, upping the Revolution’s league unbeaten streak at home to 14.
New England (13-5-7) snapped a three-match losing streak to the Red Bulls (7-11-8), who beat the Revolution 2-1 at home earlier this season. The Revolution won for a sixth straight time at home in their 11-0-3 run. The club’s longest unbeaten stretch at home was 17 spanning the 2014-15 seasons.
• Inter Miami failed to score for the first time since Lionel Messi joined the team, playing a scoreless draw with visiting Nashville.
Messi failed to convert two free-kick attempts in his first Major League Soccer match at home, and it was the first time during his Inter Miami tenure that he was kept off the score sheet.
Inter Miami still earned a point in the standings as it looks to make a late-season playoff push.
FRANCE: United States striker Folarin Balogun left Arsenal to join French league club Monaco for a reported fee of 40 million euros ($43.6 million).
The 22-year-old Balogun played in France last season on loan at Reims, where he was tied for fourth in the league’s scoring chart with 21 goals in 37 games.
Balogun, born in New York and raised in London, signed a five-year contract with Monaco.
UNITED STATES: Midfielder Gio Reyna remains sidelined with a calf injury, putting off a return to the U.S. national team under Gregg Berhalter when he resumes coaching next week ahead of exhibitions against Uzbekistan and Oman.
Berhalter has not spoken with the 20-year-old midfielder since the Reyna family’s feud with the coach escalated at last year’s World Cup. The fallout led to the U.S. Soccer Federation hiring interim bosses who led the team from January until July.
A son of former U.S. captain Claudio Reyna, Gio was hurt in the CONCACAF Nations League final against Canada in June and hasn’t played a competitive match since. Berhalter hasn’t spoken with Gio since the feud became public but said team staff had been in contact. His conversation with Gio will take place at an unspecified time.
Captain Tyler Adams, Walker Zimmerman, Josh Sargent, Zack Steffen, Sean Johnson, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Taylor Booth also are hurt and were not included in the 24-man roster announced for exhibitions against Uzbekistan on Sept. 9 in St. Louis and Oman three days later in St. Paul, Minnesota.
HOCKEY
NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed Coach Sheldon Keefe to a multiyear contract extension.
The deal with the 42-year-old Keefe wasn’t a surprise, considering new general manager Brad Treliving hinted about it last week. Terms were not disclosed.
COLLEGES
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL: The University of Nebraska laid claim to the world record for largest attendance at a women’s sporting event with 92,003 filling Memorial Stadium for the Cornhuskers’ volleyball match against Omaha.
The university took aim at the record last spring when it announced it would hold a daylong celebration of a sport that enjoys immense popularity in this state of fewer than 2 million.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
