Sports Digest: Dearden’s two-run single in the eighth inning lifts the Sea Dogs, 3-2

BASEBALL

Tyler Dearden’s two-run single in the eighth inning lifted the Portland Sea Dogs to a 3-2 victory over New Hampshire in an Eastern League game Thursday in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Philip Sykes reached on an error and Nick York walked to start the eighth for Portland, and both moved up on Christian Kos’ sacrifice fly. Then with two outs, Dearden’s line drive single to left scored both runs for the Sea Dogs, who finished with just four hits.

Brian van Bell threw six scoreless innings for Portland, allowing three hits on four hits and no walks. Skylar Arias (1-0) pitched one inning and earned the win, despite allowing both runs on a two-run homer in the seventh by Arelvis Martinez that gave the Fisher Cats a 2-1 lead.

TENNIS

WTA IN CHINA: The women’s professional tennis tour will return its events to China later this year, announcing on Thursday the end of a boycott introduced at the end of 2021 over safety concerns for former player Peng Shuai after she accused a senior government official there of sexual misconduct. attack.

WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon said in an interview with The Associated Press that though what he sought was never delivered – a chance for someone on the tour to meet Peng, along with a full and transparent investigation into the allegations of the Grand Slam doubles champion – the decision was made, with input from players and tournament officials, to return to the country.

“The position we took then was appropriate. And we stand behind it. But after 16 months we are convinced that our demands will not be met. And continuing with the same strategy doesn’t make sense,” said Simon from St. Petersburg, Fla., where the WTA is based.

While there have been no reports of Peng being spotted in public since the carefully orchestrated appearances at the Beijing Olympics in February 2022, Simon said the WTA had “received assurances from people close to her that we are with have been in touch that she is safe and living with her family in Beijing.

MONTE CARLO MASTERS: Playing in just his second match on clay this season after a month-long layoff, top-ranked Novak Djokovic lost 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Lorenzo Musetti on Thursday at the Monte Carlo Masters.

A two-time Monte Carlo champion, Djokovic lost his opening match on France’s Cote d’Azur last year and exited the tournament in the third round in 2021. Djokovic started strongly but lost control of the match in the second set when he was broken five times as he and both players struggled with accuracy in windy conditions.

The match was interrupted due to rain for about an hour with the score 6-4, 5-7, 1-1 and Djokovic with 40-30 on his serve. Musetti broke for a 4-3 lead and finished with his fourth match point.

16th seed Musetti will face Yannick Sinner in the quarterfinals. Seventh-seeded Sinner came from behind to save a match point to beat No. 10 seed Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1.

GOLF

PGA: Victor Hovland’s round-of-16 64 at the rain-delayed RBC Heritage on Thursday gave him the first-round lead for the second week in a row – and left Masters champion Jon Rahm eight shots behind with plenty of work to do entering the competition after his a big win.

Hovland was a stroke ahead of Brian Harman. Jimmy Walker and Aaron Rye were also 6 under but had not completed their rounds when play was suspended due to darkness at 7:50 p.m. Six players will complete their first rounds on Friday morning. The group of 66 included US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson, Justin Rose, Sungjae Im, Scott Stallings and Joel Dammen.

Rahm finished with a 1-over 72. He admitted fatigue from Augusta National and it didn’t help that his afternoon included a nearly 90-minute rain delay.

LPGA: Natthakritta Vongtaveelap birdied the par-5 fifth and closed with a chip-in birdie in fading light on the par-3 ninth for a 6-under 66 and a share of the first-round lead at the LPGA Tour’s LOTTE Championship in Honolulu.

HOCKEY

WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: Aerin Frankel stopped 18 shots and the United States defeated Germany 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the women’s ice hockey world championship on Thursday in Brampton, Ontario.

Amanda Kessel, Hannah Bilka and Abby Murphy each scored a goal as the Americans secured a spot in the semifinals.

German goalkeeper Sandra Abstreiter made 49 saves in Germany’s smallest defeat by the Americans ever.

• Sarah Nurse scored at 4:26 of overtime and Canada avoided its biggest women’s hockey upset to beat Sweden 3-2 on Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the world championships.

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