BASEBALL

The Portland Sea Dogs were held to three hits by two Binghamton pitchers as the Rumble Ponies completed a doubleheader sweep Thursday with a 3-2 Eastern League win in Binghamton, New York.

Niko Kavadas and Marcelo Mayer hit solo home runs for Portland, which dropped 1 1/2 game behind  Somerset in the Northeast Division.

In the opener, Joe Suozzi and Brandon McIlwain each homered and drove in two runs to lead Binghamton to a 7-2 win.

The Sea Dogs scored on a groundout by Tyler Dearden in the third, and an RBI single by Nathan Hickey in the fourth and a sacrifice fly by Nick Yorke in the seventh.

NECBL: EJ Kreutzmann’s two-run double highlighted a five-run fourth inning that propelled the Valley Blue Sox to a 10-6 win over the Sanford Mainers at Goodall Park.

Kreutzmann and Matthew Garcia each finished with three RBI.

Eddie Eisert was 2 for 3 with a two-run triple for Sanford.

GOLF

LPGA: Defending champion Jennifer Kupcho birdied the par-5 18th for a 6-under 66 and a share of the first-round lead in the Meijer LPGA Classic at Belmont, Michigan.

Kupcho birdied four of the five par-5s in a bogey-free round at Blythefield Country Club. She was tied with Ayaka Furue, Frida Kinhult, Lindsey Weaver-Wright and Cheyenne Knight.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: Allisha Gray had a career-high 27 points and 10 rebounds, Cheyenne Parker forced overtime with a last-second shot, and the Atlanta Dream beat the Connecticut Sun 92-88 in Uncasville, Connecticut, to snap a seven-game losing streak in the series.

Brionna Jones had 28 points and 13 rebounds for Connecticut (8-3).

SOCCER

MLS: Former U.S. national team forward Jozy Altidore was cut from the New England Revolution’s roster when the team exercised his contract buyout.

Altidore, 33, joined New England from Toronto ahead of the 2022 season and scored two goals in 27 appearances for the Revolution, making just five starts.

TENNIS

STUTTGART OPEN: French veteran Richard Gasquet prevailed on his fifth match point to upset top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 (8), 2-6, 7-5 at Stuttgart, Germany, for his 600th ATP tour win.

The 55th-ranked Gasquet next faces home favorite Jan-Lennard Struff in Friday’s quarterfinals. Struff defeated fifth-seeded American Tommy Paul, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) .

Taylor Fritz held serve throughout as he started his grass-court season by beating Aslan Karatsev 7-6 (4), 6-3.

NOTTINGHAM OPEN: The three remaining seeded players all lost, leaving a quarterfinal lineup with a very British flavor at the Wimbledon warm-up tournament.

The biggest shock was third-seeded Magda Linette losing 7-5, 6-3 to Jodie Burrage of Britain.

Before that, Elizabeth Mandlik of the United States ousted seventh-seeded Camila Giorgi of Italy, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, and fifth-seeded Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine was beaten 6-0, 7-5 by Harriet Dart of Britain.

HOCKEY

NHL: The New Jersey Devils locked up one of their talented young players, signing Swedish forward Jesper Bratt to an eight-year, $63 million contract extension.

General Manager Tom Fitzgerald announced the deal, which will pay the 24-year-old an average of $7.875 million. The contract starts out with a $10 million salary next season and gradually decreases to $6 million in the final year, 2030-31.

Bratt, who earned $5.45 million last season, was a restricted free agent. He had 32 goals and 41 assists as the Devils made the playoffs for the first time since 2018. His 32 goals and plus-14 rating were career highs.

COLLEGES

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Lindsay Whalen has decided not to remain in an administrative role at Minnesota following her dismissal as head coach.

According to the release agreement between the university and Whalen, she received a $215,000 buyout that was in her contract for termination without cause.