Sports Digest: Sea Dogs score four in ninth to beat Fightin Phils, 6-3

BASEBALL

Christian Koss hit a two-run single as the Portland Sea Dogs rallied to beat the Reading Fightin Phils for the second straight night, 6-3, in an Eastern League game Friday in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Portland extended its lead in the Northeast Division’s second-half standings to 1 1/2 games with its win and Somerset’s loss to Bowie.

Jhailyn Ortiz hit an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning to give Reading the lead.

David Hamilton started Portland’s rally in the ninth with a walk. Cam Cannon followed with a single and both runners moved up on a ground out by Cedanne Rafaela. After Koss hit a two-run single to give Portland a 4-3 lead, Stephen Scott and Niko Kavadas added RBI singles.

Reading took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single by Ortiz. Portland tied it in third on a sac fly by Koss, but the Fightin Phils took the lead back on a home run in the fourth by Carlos De La Cruz. The Sea Dogs tied it again in the top of the fifth when Rafaela scored on a balk.

Sterling Sharp pitched six innings for Portland, allowing two runs on six hits, while striking out four and walking two.

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: Former major leaguer Mark DeRosa has been named Team USA manager for the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

USA Baseball, based in Cary, North Carolina, announced the appointment. DeRosa’s professional coaching debut puts him in charge of the defending world champions next spring.

He is currently a co-host of MLB Network’s daily morning program, MLB Central.

LITTLE LEAGUE: A Little League World Series player who seriously injured his head when he fell out of his top bunk in dorms at the world series complex has FaceTimed with his coach and continues to improve, the coach said.

Mark Ence, the manager for Snow Canyon, Utah, said he told his 12-year-old player, Easton Oliverson, that he loved him and Easton said he loved the coach back.

Easton has been recovering in the hospital since the accident Monday. His MRI on Wednesday night came back normal, he has begun walking and walked to the bathroom on his own Friday morning, Ence said.

HOCKEY

WORLD JUNIORS: Dylan Garand made 31 saves, Kent Johnson had a goal and two assists and Canada beat the Czech Republic 5-2 in Edmonton, Alberta, to advance to the world junior hockey championship game.

Canada will face Finland or Sweden on Saturday night.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: Shey Peddy is out for the season with a ruptured right Achilles tendon, leaving the Phoenix Mercury even more short-handed in their WNBA playoff series against the Las Vegas Aces.

Peedy went down in the third quarter of Game 1 on Wednesday night with a non-contact injury and did not return. The Aces won 79-63 and can close out the three-game series at home Saturday.

The Mercury made the playoffs for a 10th straight season despite playing without center Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia on drug charges since February.

SOCCER

PREMIER LEAGUE: Manchester United reached a deal to sign midfielder Casemiro from Real Madrid, ending the Brazilian’s successful stint in Spain and giving the struggling English giant a much-needed reinforcement.

Both clubs confirmed the deal but did not provide financial details, although Spanish media said the deal for the 30-year-old Brazilian was worth about 70 million euros ($70 million) plus variables.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: The Champions League is staying on CBS in the United States for an additional six years with parent company Paramount paying $250 million a year to renew its prime European soccer rights through 2030, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.

CYCLING

SPANISH VUELTA: Primoz Roglic got off to a good start in his quest to win an unprecedented fourth straight Spanish Vuelta title when his Jumbo-Visma team won the opening team time trial in the Netherlands.

Jumbo-Visma, competing on home soil as the Netherlands finally got to open the Vuelta after not being able to do it in previous years because of the coronavirus pandemic, finished 13 seconds ahead of team Ineos Grenadiers and 14 seconds in front of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl.

Roglic’s teammate Robert Gesink, who is Dutch, will get to wear the leader’s red jersey in his ninth appearance in the Grand Tour race.

DOPING: Olympic silver medalist Mathias Flückiger was provisionally suspended in a doping case ahead of his scheduled competition in a mountain bike race at the European Championships.

Swiss Cycling said Flückiger tested positive for the anabolic agent zeranol at the national championships in June. Zeranol is approved for use in farming in some countries to promote growth in cattle.

COLLEGES

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Charlene Curtis, the first Black women’s head basketball coach in the ACC, died Thursday after a battle with cancer, the conference said. She was 67.

Curtis was the head coach at Wake Forest from 1997-2004, after head coaching stops at Radford and Temple, where she also was the first African-American head women’s basketball coach.

FOOTBALL: Urban Meyer is returning to Fox’s “Big Noon Saturday” college football pregame show after his NFL coaching career lasted less than one full season.

Fox announced that Meyer would rejoin the show that he was part of in its first two seasons.

AUTO RACING

INDYCAR: Helio Castroneves will return next year for a 26th full season in IndyCar. He has signed a one-year contract extension with Meyer Shank Racing. The additional season was announced ahead of Saturday night’s race outside of St. Louis on the final oval on this year’s IndyCar schedule.

• IndyCar points leader Will Power won the pole for the Saturday night race at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, and tied Mario Andretti for series pole record.

Power won his 67th career pole with a lap of 183.089 mph.

GOLF

LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR: Jessica Korda extended her lead to six shots going into the final day of the of the Aramco Team Series in Sotogrande, Spain and also won the team event.

Korda shot a 4-under 68 in the second round, a day after carding an 11-under 61 that broke the course record and equaled the lowest round in relation to par ever made on the Ladies European Tour.

In the 36-hole team event, the quartet including Korda, Tereza Melecka, Noora Komulainen and amateur Malcolm Borwick won by one shot after finishing on a total of 33-under over two rounds.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Gavin Green hit a couple of eagles to break the course record with a 9-under 63 in Vysoky Ujezd, Czech Republic, and take a three-shot lead after the second round of the Czech Masters.

Green eagled the par-5 first and 10th holes and added five birdies in his flawless round for a 14-under total of 130 at the Albatross Golf Resort near Prague. He also made a couple of eagles in the opening round on Thursday but they were accompanied by three bogeys as well four birdies.

CHAMPIONS TOUR: Darren Clarke, Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh shared the lead at 7-under 65 in the DICK’S Sporting Goods Open in Endicott, New York, with four more major champions right behind at En-Joie Golf Club.

Padraig Harrington and Duffy Waldorf followed at 66, and Ernie Els, Mike Weir, Y.E. Yang and Brandt Jobe shot 67. Waldorf and Jobe are the only non-major winners in the top nine.

TENNIS

WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN: Top-ranked Daniil Medvedev moved into the semifinals in Mason, Ohio, as he prepares for his U.S. Open title defense, beating 11th-seeded Taylor Fritz 7-6 (1), 6-3.

Medvedev will face No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals. Tsitsipas outlasted John Isner 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3.

Unseeded American Madison Keys, also a 2019 winner in the event, advanced to the women’s semifinals with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.

Keys will face two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who cruised past Ajla Tomljanovic, 6-2, 6-3.

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