WSU Gives UW Double Trouble
College baseball
Ron Naumu’s third double of the afternoon, a bases-loaded shot down the line in the ninth inning, gave Washington State an 8-7 victory over Washington Sunday in the College Baseball Classic in the Kingdome.
Naumu’s hit came off Huskies reliever Brett Merrick, who took the loss. The two teams were tied 5-5 going into the ninth before Naumu checked in with his three RBIs.
Washington (3-10) answered with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning. However, with only one out and two runners on, Buddy Buck was picked off of second base and Chris Whitemarsh popped out to end the game.
The Huskies were all but silent until the sixth when they came up with a pair of runs on Ryan Kriston’s sacrifice fly and Shawn Mahle’s double. In the seventh, UW first baseman Sean Spencer belted a two-run homer to put the Huskies in front, 5-4.
WSU (4-10) pinch hitter Jim Horner tied it up at 5-5 in the eighth with a single off Merrick, who entered the game with a runner on second second.
Gonzaga 3, Albertson 2
At Lewiston, Idaho in the Coca Cola Banana Belt Tournament, the Bulldogs finished in second place in the four-team field with a victory over Albertson.
Troy Cleland, 2-0 on the season, pitched seven strong innings, allowing only three hits and one run with one walk and four strikeouts.
RBI singles by Jerrod Wong and Brendan Hare provided the go-ahead runs in a two-run fifth inning.
Lewis-Clark State 15, Gonzaga 9
Against the Bulldogs in the championship game, the Warriors erupted for five runs in the second, sixth and seventh innings.
Gonzaga led 6-0 after 1 innings before LC State went on a hitting spree. The Warriors finished the game with 20 hits. Ivan Rodriguez went 4 for 6, collected 4 RBI and scored three runs.
The Warriors won the tournament for the sixth year in a row, finished at 5-0. Gonzaga had a 3-2 record followed by Albertson (2-3) and Portland State 0-5.
Whitworth 5-1, Puget Sound 3-0
At Moses Lake, the Pirates swept a double header against Puget Sound.
In the first game, Whitworth used three runs in the first inning and one in the third to keep UPS at bay after its three-run fifth inning.
In game two, Chris Fukai’s pinch-hit single with one out in the bottom of the bottom of the seventh drove in Brandon Allard for the game-winning run.
Whitworth’s Billy Wark (1-0) pitched a complete-game four-hitter striking out five. UPS pitcher Brett Loveless also went the distance, allowing five hits and posting nine strikeouts.