BASEBALL
Izzy Wilson hit his second home run of the game, a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth, to give the Portland Sea Dogs a wild 10-8 win over the Somerset Patriots Tuesday night at Hadlock Field.
It was Portland’s eighth straight win.
Wilson was 4 for 4 with three runs scored and five RBI.
The start of the game was delayed 2 1/2 hours by rain.
Garrett Whitlock, on a rehab assignment from Boston, pitched two scoreless innings for the Sea Dogs, who trailed 6-1 going to the bottom of the fourth.
But Portland chipped away with two runs in the fourth on a two-run double by Wilson.
The Sea Dogs tied the game with three runs in the fifth. Elih Marrero hit a two-run homer and Wilson tied the game with an RBI single.
Marrero scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh to put the Sea Dogs in the lead.
Wil Dalton smacked a run homer in the eighth for Portland, but the two-run cushion was not enough.
Somerset tied the game in the top of the ninth on a two-run double by Blake Perkins.
CYCLING
Magnus Cort Nielsen won a two-man sprint in a photo-finish to claim the 10th stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday at the end of a hilly trek in the Alps that was interrupted by protestors.
It was Cort Nielsen’s second stage win at cycling’s biggest race after his maiden success in the medieval city of Carcassonne four years ago.
The Danish rider nipped Nick Schultz to the line by a few inches at the end of the long and exhausting climb to the Megeve ski resort after Luis Leon Sanchez, who ended third, launched the sprint.
Cort Nielsen fell on his back, exhausted, once he crossed the finish line.
“I can’t believe what just happened today, I was on the limit for so long on this climb,” he said. “I lost contact with the group a couple of times in the last kilometers. Luckily, it went all back together and I was there.”
Two-time defending champion Tadej Pogacar rode among a group of general contenders that crossed less than nine minutes behind and kept the race lead.
It looked like Pogacar would relinquish his yellow jersey since Lennard Kamna at some point gained enough time in the day’s breakaway to dream about the famed tunic. But the chasing pack of favorites rode hard in the finale and the Slovenian champion kept hold of his lead.
Pogacar now leads Kamna by 11 seconds ahead of two daunting stages in the high mountains. Kamna is not expected to stay in contention in the thin air and Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark remains Pogacar’s most dangerous rival, 39 seconds off the pace.
BASKETBALL
NBA: Golden State assistant coach Ron Adams is the winner of this year’s Tex Winter Assistant Coach Lifetime Impact Award, presented by the National Basketball Coaches Association.
Adams has spent more than 50 years in coaching and is entering his 30th year in the NBA. He is known as a defensive mastermind and a player-development guru, and has long been one of the game’s most respected assistants.
Adams has been part of the Warriors’ four NBA titles in the last eight seasons. He has also worked at the NBA level with San Antonio, Philadelphia, Portland, Milwaukee, Chicago, Oklahoma City and Boston.
• New Orleans Pelicans second-round draft choice E.J. Liddell has been diagnosed with torn knee ligaments that will keep him out indefinitely, the club said.
The injury to the 6-foot-6 forward from Ohio State occurred in the third quarter of a Summer League game in Las Vegas on Monday night against the Atlanta Hawks.
Subsequent imaging confirmed Liddell has a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
• The NBA has completed the process of changing the transition take foul rule, ending years of discussion about what to do with the long-maligned tactic.
And, also as expected, the play-in tournament is going to be around for the foreseeable future.
The league’s board of governors finalized those two matters, approving a plan to award one free throw when teams are disadvantaged by the take foul – as well as removing the “experimental” designation from the play-in element to the postseason.
The take foul – in which the defender does not make a play on the ball – is what the league classifies as one that occurs either “during a transition scoring opportunity or immediately following a change of possession and before the offensive team had the opportunity to advance the ball.” The exception is in the final 2 minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime.
The new penalty for such a foul is one free throw, which may be attempted by any player on the offended team in the game at the time the foul was committed, and continued possession.
WNBA: Breanna Stewart scored 15 of her 19 points in the second half and Ezi Magbegor had 13 points to help the Seattle Storm beat the visiting Dallas Wings 83-74.
• Kelsey Plum scored 27 points and A’ja Wilson added 23 to help the visiting Las Vegas Aces beat the New York Liberty 107-101.
Wilson also had 14 rebounds for the Aces.
• Candace Parker had 31 points and 11 rebounds, Kahleah Copper scored 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting and the Chicago Sky pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the visiting Atlanta Dream, 90-75.
HOCKEY
PHF: Montreal is finally getting its long-promised women’s pro hockey franchise, though the Premier Hockey Federation put the brakes on adding a second expansion team entering its eighth season, the league announced.
In unveiling the U.S.-based, privately backed league’s seventh franchise and second in Canada, PHF Commissioner Reagan Carey said it was in the sport’s best interest to take a slower approach toward growth to ensure long-term stability.
The yet-to-be-named Montreal franchise has been in the works for some 18 months, with its launch already delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic. PHF officials in January had also committed to expanding into a U.S. location, without disclosing where.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR: 23XI Racing got a jump on the 2024 Cup Series season with the surprising announcement that it signed Tyler Reddick to join the NASCAR team owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin.
Reddick, a two-time Xfinity Series champion, is in his third full season driving for Richard Childress Racing. He is coming off his breakthrough first career Cup victory on July 3 at Road America.
The 26-year-old Reddick still has one season left driving for RCR, a potentially awkward situation the team addressed in a tweet when it wrote the ” timing of this announcement could not be any worse.”
SOCCER
MLS: U.S. national team regulars Paul Arriola, Jesus Ferreira, Aaron Long, Jordan Morris, DeAndre Yedlin and Walker Zimmerman were among 26 players picked for Major League Soccer’s All-Star Game.
Mexico’s Javier Hernandez and Carlos Vela, and Canada’s Kamal Miller also were selected for the team, which will face Mexican league All-Stars on Aug. 10 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Defending champion New York City and league-leading Los Angeles have three players each on the MLS team.
Twelve players were selected in fan, player and media voting, and another 12 were chosen by All-Star Coach Adrian Heath of Minnesota United. MLS Commissioner Don Garber got to name two others: New York City goalkeeper Sean Johnson and Montreal defender Kamal Miller.
• Defender Carlos Salcedo is leaving Toronto’s team.
Toronto said it terminated his contract by mutual consent. Coach Bob Bradley said the 28-year-old Mexican was dealing with a family matter. Salcedo has been traveling back to Mexico, where his wife gave birth last month to their second child.
MANCHESTER CITY: Midfielder Rodri signed a three-year contract extension to stay with the English Premier League champion through the 2026-27 season, the club said.
The Spain international has made 151 appearances for City since joining from Atletico Madrid three years ago.
COLLEGES
AWARDS: Val Ackerman, Leonard Hamilton, Speedy Morris and Rick Byrd are this year’s recipients of the Joe Lapchick Character Award.
Ackerman helped found the WNBA and served as the first president. She also has had a successful career as commissioner of the Big East Conference since 2013, leading the rebirth of the conference following the decision of basketball schools to separate from the original conference.
Hamilton is the winningest coach in Florida State basketball history and fifth all time in Atlantic Coast Conference history. He has 394 victories in his 20 years at the school and 594 overall in his 34-year career that included stops at Oklahoma State and Miami before coming to the Seminoles in 2002.
Morris guided La Salle from 1986-2001 and collecting 238 wins and four NCAA Tournament appearances. In the 1989-90 season, his team went 30-2 and finished 12th in the AP poll behind Lionel Simmons and Doug Overton. Morris was the first Division I coach to coach both the men’s and women’s basketball programs at the same school.
Byrd spent 33 years coaching at Belmont from 1986-2019. He won 713 games there and 805 overall. The Bruins went 27-6 in his final season and made the NCAA Tournament. Belmont made eight NCAA appearances during Byrd’s tenure.
This is the 14th year the award will be presented to those who have shown the character traits of Lapchick, who coached at St. John’s and with the New York Knicks.
The quartet will be honored at a luncheon on Sept. 16 in New York.
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