Donovan hurls Zags past Gaels
Patrick Donovan worked into the ninth inning and allowed just seven hits as the Gonzaga Bulldogs cruised to a 4-1 victory and a three-game sweep over the Saint Mary’s Gaels in West Coast Conference baseball action on Sunday at Avista Stadium.
Donovan (4-3) didn’t allow a run until the ninth inning. John Gonzalez came in with one out in the inning and induced a pair of ground-ball outs to earn his sixth save of the season.
Gonzaga took control of the game with a three-run second inning. Brad Welker singled in the first run, Aaron McGuinness followed with an RBI double and Chris Sinner capped the scoring with a sacrifice fly.
The Bulldogs (24-26, 16-11) scored their final run in the sixth on David Johnson’s single.
Justin Sloan (2-6) took the loss for the Gaels (14-38, 7-20).
•Wes Whisler tossed a seven-hit shutout and the UCLA Bruins (29-24, 10-8) pounded the Washington State Cougars 14-0 in the rubber game of a three-game Pacific-10 Conference series in Los Angeles.
Whisler (2-4) also had three hits and an RBI at the plate.
Garrett Alwert (4-3) took the loss for the Cougars (26-22, 6-12), surrendering seven runs, five earned, on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings.
•Freshman Tim Lincecum broke the Washington Huskies’ single-season strikeout record, but fell short of a victory as the Southern Cal Trojans (22-27, 8-10) held on for a 10-8 victory in Pac-10 play in Los Angeles.
Lincecum, despite allowing four runs, fanned three in the first inning to pass Jeff Heaverlo’s mark of 131 set in 1999. Lincecum (8-2) finished with five strikeouts in five innings.
Washington (32-16-1, 14-7) had its five-game winning streak snapped. The Huskies remained in second place in the conference, one-half game behind Stanford.
Rowing
The Washington State women’s rowing team, led by a second-place finish from the second varsity 8, finished third at the Pacific-10 Conference Rowing Championships at Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova, Calif.
Cal’s women won the event with 69 points, followed by Washington (62) and WSU (50).
The third-ranked Washington men rowed to their second straight varsity 8 conference title, holding off No. 4 Cal by 1.1 seconds.
The Gonzaga women, capped by a fourth-place showing in the varsity 8 Petite Final, finished 10th at the event
NCAA tournaments
The Washington Huskies softball team earned a No. 1 seed in the Regional Tournament and will head to Athens, Ga., on Tuesday. The eighth-ranked Huskies (36-17) will open play against No. 8 seed Chattanooga (45-23).
•The 12th-ranked Washington women’s golf team is one of 24 teams that will compete for the NCAA championship beginning Tuesday at the Lake Course at Grand National in Auburn, Ala.
•The 10th-ranked Huskies women’s tennis team survived a scare, battling back from a third-set tiebreaker in No. 4 singles, to hold off the Oregon Ducks 4-3 in second-round play in Seattle. The Huskies (20-5) move on to the 16-team Finals beginning Thursday in Athens, Ga.
The Washington men’s team’s bid for a fourth-straight trip to the Finals ended in a 4-2 loss to the Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto, Calif.
•The Western Washington women’s golf team placed fifth in the NCAA Division II National Championships in Longwood, Fla., while the WWU men took ninth in the National Championships in Deland, Fla., over the weekend.