Roundup: Oklahoma clubs Huskies

Senior second baseman Amber Flores hit three solo home runs off Washington pitching star Danielle Lawrie on Thursday night as Oklahoma pulled off a 6-1 upset of the defending NCAA champion Huskies in Game 1 of a NCAA tournament Super Regional in Seattle.

The second game in the best-of-3 series will be tonight, followed by a third game if necessary.

The 14th-seeded Sooners (47-10) blasted three of their homers in the fifth inning – a leadoff by third baseman Dani Dobbs, then back-to-back shots by Flores and first baseman Jessica Shults.

Oklahoma freshman left-handed pitcher Keilani Ricketts struck out nine Washington (48-7) batters and allowed just two hits.

Lawrie allowed seven hits and struck out five before leaving after the fifth. She fell to 38-3.

Baseball

The NAIA World Series opens today with four games at Lewis-Clark State in Lewiston.

Bellhaven (Miss.), Pt. Loma Nazarene (Calif.), Lee (Tenn.), Lubbock Christian (Texas), Oklahoma City, Cal Baptist, Embry-Riddle (Fla.) and Tennessee Wesleyan play in games today with the opener at noon. No. 1 seed LCSC and No. 2 Cumberland (Tenn.) have byes and begin play Saturday.

Track and field

Whitworth’s Alex Hymel claimed his third consecutive NCAA Division III All-America designation by finishing eighth in the javelin at the national championships at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Hymel, a junior from Damascus, Ore., had a throw of 201 feet, 5 inches, 5 feet short of his season best.

Pirates freshman Joy Shufeldt finished 12th in the women’s 10,000 meters in hot and muggy conditions, with a time of 37 minutes, 58.55 seconds. Her season best was 35:49.50. Junior Erica Cox did not advance to the hammer finals with a throw of 156-8.

The meet continues through Saturday.

•Washington’s Joe Zimmer (Lewis and Clark) finished second in the javelin at 235-3 on the first day of NCAA Division I West Region meet at Austin, Texas, to qualify for the national championships in Eugene, Ore., in two weeks.

Idaho’s Eugenio Mannucci qualified in the shot put with a mark of 58-61/2, ninth best.

The new NCAA regional format doesn’t have finals. Instead, 48 athletes compete in each event with the top 12 finishers advancing to the nationals. Field events have one competition to qualify for nationals while running events have two rounds to cut down to 12 qualifiers.

WSU’s Jeshua Anderson had the top time of 49.47 in the 400 hurdles to move ahead to today’s qualifying race. WSU’s Joe Abbott advanced to the 800-meter qualifier with a time of 1:48.66, eighth best overall.

In women’s competition, Idaho’s Mykael Bothum reached the nationals with a 10th-place shot put of 52-21/2 while WSU javelin throwers Marissa Tschida (171-10, second) and Courtney Kirkwood (164-7, seventh) also qualified.

Sarah Frey of Eastern Washington (59.65, 17th best) and two WSU hurdlers, Veronica Elseroad-Wall (59.46 (19th) and Brittnay Crabb (60.30, 24th), reached the qualifying race in the 400s.

WSU’s Lisa Egami advanced to the 1,500 qualifying race with a time of 4:24.24 in the 1,500, 14th best, while teammate Anna Layman got the 24th and final spot into the qualifying race for the 800 with a time of 2:08.71.

Soccer

The Spokane Spiders (0-4) fell to the Washington Crossfire (1-2) 7-2 in a Premier Development League match at Interbay Stadium in Seattle. No details were available.