Ecl Baseball Tourney Pits Trojans, Huskies
Perennial national power Southern California, which came within a game of advancing to this year’s College World Series, will be among four teams competing this weekend in Gonzaga University’s second annual Evans, Craven & Lackie College Baseball Invitational at August/A.R.T. Stadium.
The Trojans will face Washington at 2:30 p.m. Friday in a rematch of last spring’s Pacific-10 Conference playoff series, won by USC. Host Gonzaga will play Oregon State at 11 a.m. in the opening game of the three-day, round-robin event, which has been moved from the spring to take advantage of better weather and avoid scheduling conflicts.
Saturday’s schedule pits UW against OSU at 11 a.m. and GU against USC at 2:30 p.m. The tournament concludes Sunday with an 11:00 a.m. matchup between OSU and USC, and a 2:30 p.m. showdown between UW and Gonzaga.
Games will count against the 56-game limit the NCAA has placed on Division I teams during each school year.
But GU coach Steve Hertz hardly seems bothered by that fact. The opportunity to play against such strong competition in the fall is vitally important to his program.
“It’s huge,” he said, “because you only have 22 weeks during the year where you can be with your team, and 17 or 18 of those have to be set aside for the spring.”
Day passes are $5 and tournament passes are $10, with proceeds to go to the Spokane Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Center. A free youth clinic will be held Saturday morning at 9, with all registrants receiving tournament passes. Senior citizens will be admitted free to Friday’s first-round games.
Women’s soccer
Joy Cullen’s first goal of the year was first rate. Cullen took a pass from former Mead Jennifer Dunford, turned her defender and shot from 10 yards to lead Whitworth over visiting Whitman 1-0 Wednesday.
The goal, nearly 12 minutes into the second half, kept the 16th-ranked Pirates (9-2, 4-1) one game behind Willamette in the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges standings. Whitworth’s Jennifer Peterson made six saves.
Katie Snow scored twice and added an assist to vault Community Colleges of Spokane to a 3-0 lead during a 6-0 win over visiting Columbia Basin at Spokane Falls CC.
Danay Anderson added two second-half goals, and Heidi Simmons had one goal and one assist for the Sasquatch (8-1-2, 6-0-1 Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges.)
Men’s soccer
Kenny Kreistein scored twice to guide visiting Whitworth (2-0-2, 3-2-2) to a 2-0 NCIC win over Whitman at Walla Walla.
Jace Jones assisted the first goal, at 33 minutes. The other, at 70 minutes, was unassisted. Whitworth’s Matt Yeoman made four saves.
College volleyball
CCS defeated visiting Blue Mountain Community College 15-2, 15-2, 15-8 at SFCC. Details were unavailable.
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