Shane Drohan allowed one hit over six innings with four strikeouts and two walks, No. 9 hitter Corey Rosier hit a solo home run and the Portland Sea Dogs beat Akron, 2-0, in an Eastern League game on Thursday night in Akron, Ohio.
Drohan, a lefty who improved to 5-0, earlier Thursday was named the Eastern League Pitcher of the Month for April when he went 4-0 in four starts, allowing two earned runs on 13 hits and four walks over 23 innings. He began the season with 12 scoreless innings. On April 20, he struck out eight over six innings at Hadlock Field.
Rosier’s home run gave Portland a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Nick Yorke extended the edge with an RBI single in the fifth.
HOCKEY
U.S. WOMEN: United States women’s hockey players have fallen behind their Canadian rivals in terms of compensation, two people with direct knowledge of each national team’s contracts revealed to The Associated Press this week.
Not only do the Canadian players share from a larger pool of funds than their U.S. counterparts, Hockey Canada also allots an additional pool of money for up to as many as five developmental players beyond its 23-women national team roster, the people said.
Under terms of its three-year deal, USA Hockey limits its monetary pool to its 23-player roster, the people added. This is considered a sticking point for non-rostered U.S. players, who have fewer resources to continue pursuing hockey.
SOCCER
ITALY: Napoli won its first Italian soccer league title since the days when Diego Maradona played for the club, sealing the trophy with a 1-1 draw at Udinese on Thursday.
Maradona led Napoli to its only previous Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990.
League scoring leader Victor Osimhen equalized for Napoli early in the second half by redirecting in a rebound after Sandi Lovric had put Udinese ahead early on.
PREMIER LEAGUE: Alexis Mac Allister converted a 99th-minute penalty to lift Brighton to a 1-0 win over Manchester United.
Mac Allister dispatched a penalty into the top corner with virtually the last kick of the game to earn Brighton a 1-0 win over United on Thursday. In the last of the allotted five minutes of stoppage time, United defender Luke Shaw patted the ball away with his raised hand after a corner was swung in from the right.
The referee awarded the spot kick after being told to look at the incident on the pitchside monitor, and Mac Allister kept his cool.
TENNIS
MADRID OPEN: Jan-Lennard Struff upset fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 on Thursday to become the third lucky loser to reach the semifinals of a Masters 1000 tournament.
The 33-year-old German had lost in qualifying but made it to the main draw after another player dropped out. Struff had lost only five service games in the main draw and relinquished only one against Tsitsipas on his way to victory in the Spanish capital.
Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz faces 17th-seeded Borna Coric in the other semifinal.
Women’s No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka both won their semifinals and will meet for the title on Saturday. It will be a rematch of the final in Stuttgart two weeks ago, which Swiatek won.
GOLF
LIV: Sergio Garcia is the only defector to LIV Golf who hasn’t paid a fine imposed by the European tour for playing in the Saudi-backed competition without permission.
The European tour said Thursday that 16 of the 17 players have paid the fine of $125,000 for serious breaches of its conflicting tournament regulation policy. Garcia, the tour said, has not paid “nor has he given any indication that he intends to.”
The tour said it will take “appropriate action” if Garcia continues to ignore the sanction.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Matthieu Pavon shot the lowest round of his European tour career, an 8-under 63 with nine birdies and a single bogey for a two-shot lead over Maximilian Kieffer of Germany at the Italian Open in Rome.
Kieffer was alone in second after making an eagle, five birdies and one bogey in his 65. Julien Guerrier of France and China’s Wu Ashun were another shot back on 5-under.
PGA: Rory McIlroy shot a 3-under 68 at the Wells Fargo Championship on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina, in his first tournament since missing the cut at the Masters, leaving him three shots behind first-round leader Tommy Fleetwood.
Fleetwood’s 6-under 65 was one stroke better than Xander Schauffele, Kevin Streelman, Taylor Moore, K.H. Lee and Ryan Palmer, who are tied for second after opening 66s. Patrick Cantlay, with Tiger Woods’ former caddie Joe LaCava on his bag, shot 67.
LPGA: World No. 1 Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu rallied on the back nine to help the United States earn a split of its first two matches against China on Thursday at the International Crown team event in San Francisco.
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