BASEBALL

The Portland Sea Dogs kept a clean sheet for the second straight game and managed just two goals, while the Somerset Patriots gained further ground in the Eastern League playoff race with a 12-0 victory on Wednesday night at Hadlock Field.

Grant Richardson hit 3 for 5 with a three-run homer and Cole Gabrielson scored four runs for the Patriots, who moved to within 3 1/2 games of the Sea Dogs for first place in the Northeast Division.

Tyler Miller’s line-drive single in the second inning was the only hit for the Sea Dogs until Alex Binelas hit a single with two outs in the ninth inning.

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSICS: The United States will face Mexico, Italy and Great Britain in the first round of the 2026 World Baseball Classic at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Major League Baseball and the players association announced.

Puerto Rico will play in Group A against Cuba, Panama and Canada at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan.

Defending champions Japan will face Australia, South Korea and the Czech Republic in Group C at Tokyo Dome, and the Dominican Republic will face Venezuela, the Netherlands and Israel in Group D at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

Each group of five will also include one nation from the qualification, which will take place next February and March.

BASKETBALL

NBA: Al Attles, a Hall of Famer who coached the 1975 NBA championship Warriors and spent more than six decades with the organization as a player, general manager and most recently as a team ambassador, has died. He was 87.

The Warriors announced Wednesday that Attles died a day earlier at his East Bay home surrounded by family. The team did not disclose the cause of death.

Nicknamed “The Destroyer” for his physical style of play, Attles was selected in the fifth round of the 1960 draft when the Warriors were in Philadelphia. He remained with the franchise until his death. His 64-year tenure was the longest with a single franchise for one person in league history.

Attles was one of the first black head coaches in the NBA and witnessed some of the greatest games of different eras, including scoring 17 points in Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game for the Warriors in 1962.

Universities

MEN’S BASKETBALL: The union representing the Dartmouth men’s basketball team has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the Ivy League university for refusing to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the players.

The Service Employees International Union Local 560, which already represents some other workers at Dartmouth, said the failure of negotiations was a violation of both labor laws and the school’s code of ethics.

A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled in March that Dartmouth men’s basketball players were employees of the school, paving the way for them to unionize. The players then voted 13-2 to join SEIU Local 560.

Dartmouth responded by announcing that it would not negotiate with the players – a tactic aimed at taking the case to court in the hope that a federal judge would overturn the NLRB’s decision.

FOOTBALL: Sacred Heart and Merrimack have announced they will play for the Yankee Conference title on Nov. 16, reviving the brand of the old New England-based league that included UMaine and stretched along the East Coast before it disbanded in 1996.

Sacred Heart of Fairfield, Connecticut, and Merrimack of North Andover, Massachusetts, compete as independents in Division I’s second division, the Championship Subdivision. Both played in the Northeast Conference until last season before deciding to join the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which does not sponsor football.

FOOTBALL

GERMANY: Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has announced his retirement from the national team after 15 years and 124 games.

The 38-year-old Neuer made his debut for Germany in 2009 and won the World Cup in 2014. His last game for the national team was a 2-1 extra-time defeat to Spain in the quarter-finals of the 2024 European Championship.

TENNIS

VONDROUSOVA INJURED: Marketa Vondrousova, who won Wimbledon in 2023, underwent surgery on her left shoulder, she wrote in a social media post.

The 25-year-old left-hander from the Czech Republic has not competed in a tournament since her first-round exit at Wimbledon on July 2. Vondrousova lost 4-6, 2-6 to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro on Centre Court, becoming the first defending champion since 1994 to lose her opening match at Wimbledon.

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