FOOTBALL
University of Maine wide receiver Andre Miller signed a free-agent contract Sunday with the New York Giants.
Miller, from Old Town, was a two-time All-Colonial Athletic Association selection. He earned first-team honors in the spring of 2021. As a senior last fall, he had career bests with 39 receptions and 684 yards in nine games, scoring three touchdowns.
Miller finished his career 14th on Maine’s all-time receiving yards list with 1,848 yards.
BASEBALL
EASTERN LEAGUE: Jhony Brito pitched seven scoreless innings and the Somerset Patriots held the Portland Sea Dogs to one hit in a 5-0 win in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey.
Brito (2-1) allowed just a second-inning single to Sea Dogs catcher Kole Cottam. He struck out six and walked one.
Brandon Lockridge hit a two-run triple in the third inning to give the Patriots a 2-0 lead. In the fifth, Anthony Volpe belted a solo home run and Andres Chaparro added a two-run shot.
Sea Dogs starter Brandon Murphy took the loss, allowing two runs on two hits while striking out four and walking four in four innings.
GOLF
PGA: Jon Rahm pulled out of a four-way tie with a 12-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole and then held on with pars for a 2-under 69 and a one-shot victory in the Mexico Open at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Rahm won for the first time since the U.S. Open last summer at Torrey Pines.
Tony Finau and Brandon Wu each closed with a 63, while Kurt Kitayama birdied the final hole from a back bunker for a 68. They tied for second.
EUROPEAN: Home favorite Adri Arnaus won a six-hole playoff to beat Oliver Bekker at the Catalunya Championship in Girona, Spain, and claim his first European tour win.
Arnaus, who is from Barcelona in northeast Spain near Girona, trailed overnight leader Bekker by seven shots at the start of the day. But he carded a final round 7-under 65 to pull level.
In the playoff, Arnaus and Becker made par on five trips to the 18th hole, but when they went to the 17th, Bekker’s bogey gave Arnaus the title.
LPGA: Marina Alex won the Palos Verdes Championship in Palos Verdes Estates, California, for her second LPGA Tour title, breaking a tie with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 16th and parring the final two holes for a one-stroke victory over Jin Young Ko.
Three strokes behind Hannah Green entering the round, Alex closed with a 5-under 66 to finish at 10-under 274 at hilly and windy Palos Verdes Golf Club.
The top-ranked Ko also shot a 66. She finished about an hour before Alex in the first-year event that wrapped up the LPGA Tour’s two-week stay in the Los Angeles area and five-tournament West Coast swing.
CHAMPIONS: Steven Alker returned from a two-hour rain delay by playing a six-hole stretch in 6-under par to race past Steve Stricker, closing with a 6-under 66 to win the Insperity Invitational in The Woodlands, Texas, for his second PGA Tour Champions victory this year.
Alker had to make a pair of tough par saves to close out the front nine at The Woodlands and stay one shot ahead of Stricker, who was playing for the first time in six months.
Alker birdied three straight holes starting at No. 11, and then he effectively put the tournament away by rolling in an eagle putt on the par-5 15th to build a four-shot lead.
Stricker and Brandt Jobe each shot 70 and tied for second, four shots behind. Alker finished at 18-under 198.
TENNIS
WIMBLEDON: Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic criticized Wimbledon’s decision to exclude Russian and Belarus players from this year’s tournament following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The two tennis greats said that Wimbledon had acted unfairly.
“I think it’s very unfair of (on) my Russian tennis mates, my colleagues … it’s not their fault what’s happening in this moment with the war,” Nadal, a 21-time Grand Slam winner, said in Spain, where both he and Djokovic are preparing to play in the Madrid Open.
“I’m sorry for them,” Nadal said. “Wimbledon just took their decision … the government didn’t force them to do it.”
BMW OPEN: Danish teenager Holger Rune won the final in Munich to claim his first ATP Tour title after Botic van de Zandschulp was forced to retire.
The eighth-seeded van de Zandschulp led 4-3 in the opening set – with Rune serving at 40-15 – when he withdrew because of chest pains.
AUTO RACING
INDYCAR: Pato O’Ward used a strong outside pass of pole-sitter Rinus VeeKay after both pitted for fresh tires to take the lead, then drove away for the victory at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama.
It’s the third win of O’Ward’s career and broke a Team Penske stranglehold on the IndyCar results.
Penske drivers Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden swept the first three races of the season, all while O’Ward was pouting over his team-friendly contract with Arrow McLaren SP. O’Ward wanted more money and more assurances that McLaren has him in its F1 pipeline, and his frustration spilled over onto the track.
SOCCER
ENGLAND: Headers from defenders Gabriel and Rob Holding nudged Arsenal closer to a return to the Champions League with a 2-1 victory at West Ham in the Premier League.
Arsenal retained its two-point lead in fourth place over its north London rival, Tottenham, which beat Leicester, 3-1.
SWITZERLAND: American forward Jordan Pefok scored his Swiss league-leading 22nd goal, converting a penalty kick in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time to give Young Boys a 2-1 win at Sion.
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