GU’s Ames stifles Toreros

Steven Ames was stellar on the mound and Ernesto Ortiz and Tyson Van Winkle delivered the big hits to propel the Gonzaga Bulldogs to a 4-2 victory over the 21st-ranked San Diego Toreros on Saturday in the rubber game of a three-game West Coast Conference baseball series at Washington Trust Field.

Gonzaga (23-10, 6-3) won its third straight conference series and pulled within a game of first-place San Diego (23-13, 7-2).

Ames, who leads the WCC with a 6-0 record, allowed a run in each of the first two innings before settling down. He allowed just six hits in a complete-game, 120-pitch effort. He struck out 10, walked one and surrendered only three hits over his final 71/3 innings.

The Toreros twice led briefly, but Van Winkle singled home Evan Wells to knot the score at 1-1 in the first and repeated the feat in the bottom of the third to forge a 2-2 tie. Both times Wells singled and stole second base to get into scoring position.

Gonzaga took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth. Mark Castellitto was hit by a pitch with one out. Jason Chatwood followed with a walk to put runners on first and second base for ninth-place hitter Ortiz, who laced a two-strike double into the left-field corner scoring both.

•Pac-10 Conference: Matt Newman went 5 for 5 with a double, homer and five RBIs as top-ranked Arizona State (25-7, 10-1) rolled to an 11-1 win over Washington State (14-15, 4-4) at Tempe, Ariz.

Matt Fanelli went 3 for 4 with an RBI for the Cougars.

•David Bentrott homered to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning for the go-ahead run and pitcher Geoff Brown picked up his third win in the last four games – all in relief – as the Washington Huskies (14-19, 4-5) completed a three-game sweep of the California Golden Bears (15-17, 3-9) with a 7-2 victory in Pac-10 play in Seattle.

•Northwest Conference: The Pacific Lutheran Lutes (21-8, 17-5) overcame three-run deficits in both games to post 11-7 and 6-5 victories over the visiting Whitworth Pirates (6-24, 4-20) at Parkland, Wash.

J.R. Jarrell had four hits and two RBIs to lead the Whits.

•NWAACC: The visiting Yakima Valley Yaks (13-16, 5-7) used a hot start in the opener and a late rally in the nightcap to post 7-5, 4-3 victories over the Community Colleges of Spokane Sasquatch (11-11, 3-9) at Spokane Falls CC.

Ian Atkinson had five hits on the day for the Sasquatch, who fell behind 4-0 after three innings in the first game and saw a 3-0 lead evaporate over the final three innings of the second game.

Softball

Pac-10 Conference: Megan Langenfield fired a five-inning no-hitter and the seventh-ranked UCLA Bruins (29-8, 4-4) rolled to a 10-0 victory over the third-ranked Washington Huskies (31-7, 4-4) in Los Angeles.

A Bruins error prevented Langenfield from throwing a perfect game.

•Scenic West Athletic Conference: The Southern Idaho Golden Eagles (35-15, 28-10) handed the North Idaho Cardinals (28-19, 24-14) a pair of losses in Coeur d’Alene.

Ashley Chappel drove in Cassie Merrill in the bottom of the seventh and McKensey Hillstead tossed a complete-game one-hitter to lead CSI to a 1-0 win in the opener. Megan Zimmerman went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and three runs scored to lead the Golden Eagles to a 5-2 victory in the nightcap. CSI won three times in the four-game series.

•NWAACC: The CC Spokane Sasquatch (24-6, 14-4) and visiting Walla Walla Warriors (19-14, 11-7) split a doubleheader at SFCC.

Sean Topp tossed a complete-game three-hitter and the Sasquatch used a bases-loaded walk in the sixth to win 1-0.

CCS stranded 14 baserunners in losing the nightcap 4-2.

•Northwest Conference: The Whitworth Pirates (14-14, 10-8) rolled to a doubleheader sweep of the Lewis & Clark Pioneers in Portland.

Lacey Kerr stroked a pair of two-run singles to lead the Pirates to a 15-2 five-inning win in the first game.

Sami Parr had three hits and three RBIs and Rachel Anderson had a two-run double to lead the Whits to a 9-4 second-game win.

Rowing

The Gonzaga Bulldogs men won two of six races on the final day of the George Washington Invitational Regatta on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

The GU junior varsity 8+ beat Holy Cross by 4.4 seconds, while the freshman 8+ beat Holy Cross by 20.1 seconds.

•The Washington Huskies women won all five races against the Washington State Cougars in a head-to-head regatta at Wawawai Landing near Pullman.

The closest race of the day was the varsity 8+ where sixth-ranked UW finished in 6:42.96, while 15th-ranked WSU clocked 6:44.83.

Tennis

Rachel Berger defeated Seattle University’s Audree Jenks 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 to become the Eastern Washington Eagles’ all-time leader in victories in singles play.

Berger’s 41st career win moved her one ahead of Tina Dlouhy (1993-96).

Track and field

Washington State University’s Jeshua Anderson won the men’s 400-meter hurdles at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational meet at UCLA’s Drake Stadium in Los Angeles.

Anderson clocked in at 49.44 seconds.

WSU’s Lisa Egami finished second in the women’s 800 with a time of 2:08.16.

•Nicole Luckenbach’s school record helped the Eastern Washington Eagles win the women’s team title at the Washington vs. Oregon Scoring Clash at Spokane Falls Community College.

CC Spokane topped the men’s field.

Luckenbach threw the hammer 184 feet, 1 inch to win the event and top her previous school record of 182-10 – set this year at the Stanford Invitational.

EWU easily outdistanced runner-up CCS 160-92.5. Eastern Oregon (87) was third, followed by Whitworth (84.5) and Lane (81). The Washington women beat Oregon 374.5-302.5.

Deonta Edwards (high jump), Sean Coyle (steeplechase), Herschel Sanchey (1,500) and Michael Vetter (200) all won their events to lead the Sasquatch men past runner-up Lane 143-114.

EWU (110) was third, followed by Linfield (99.5) and Portland State (79). Washington topped Oregon 360-343.

Men’s basketball

Chris Busch, a 6-6, 220-pound junior forward who averaged 4.3 points, 2.6 rebounds a game for Eastern Washington last winter, has decided to transfer.