College roundup: Zags lose by one to No. 21 Arizona

A five-hit, four-run sixth inning proved too much for the Gonzaga Bulldogs as visiting Arizona held on for a 5-4 non-conference win Monday at the Patterson Baseball Complex.

The 21st-ranked Wildcats (23-9) jumped ahead 1-0 off GU starter Andrew Danner (1-2) on Rafael Valenzuela’s third-inning solo homer to right. GU’s Drew Heid, who was 2 for 4 on the day, tied the game with a homer onto Trent Avenue in the bottom of the inning.

The Wildcats’ Seth Mejias-Brean chased Danner with a two-run double in the sixth to climax the four-run rally. The Zags (12-19-1) answered in the eighth with three, helped in part by a UA error. And a two-out throwing error by shortstop Alex Mejia in the ninth brought up Heid, hitting .401, with the tying run on first. But Mejia was able to leap and barely grab Heid’s liner headed toward the left-center gap to end the game.

“You look at that right now, when you’re not going as well as you would like, and every little inch is magnified,” said GU coach Mark Machtolf.

•Golf: Community Colleges of Spokane, with five of the top 10 individuals, cruised to a 13-stroke victory with a 15-under-par 561 in the NWAACC men’s tournament in Wenatchee to take over the league lead.

Sophomore Corey Meyers from Deer Park placed second with a 7-under 137, that included a hole-in-one Monday.

The CCS women were edged 492-494 by Green River, whose Caral Martinson defeated CCS’ Alexa Bell in a playoff for medalist honors after they tied for first with 16-over 160s. CCS also leads the women’s league.

•Track and field: Caitlin McGrane, a Puget Sound senior from Colville in pursuit of her third straight heptathlon title, has the first-day lead in the event at the NWC Multi-Events Championships in Forest Grove, Ore.

McGrane has a 128-point lead after fashioning a career-best first-day total of 2,662 points. Whitworth’s Tera Prosser is seventh with 2,273 points.

Cody Stelzer of Whitworth is third in the decathlon with 3,220 points that included an NCAA provisional qualifying high jump of 6 feet, 91/2 inches.