Area roundup: Cougars’ big ninth inning beats Bruins

After mustering a single hit over eight innings, Washington State broke through for three runs in the ninth inning to beat No. 16 UCLA 3-2 in Pac-10 baseball action Sunday in Pullman.

Collin Slaybaugh and Cody Bartlett led off the ninth with back-to-back singles for the Cougars (13-14, 2-7 Pac-10), and Brett Jacobs’ sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out. Taylor Ard followed with a two-run single. After Ard was thrown out trying to steal second, Derek Jones tripled and Jason Monda drove him home with a single for the winning run.

Paris Shewey (1-0) struck out three over two shutout innings for the victory.

• Gonzaga took advantage of four San Diego errors to jump ahead early and cruise to an 11-6 win to complete a West Coast Conference series sweep in Spokane.

Marco Gonzales (5-2) didn’t extend his streak of three straight complete games, but limited the Toreros to one run on six hits over 6 2/3 innings. He struck out six and walked two in winning his fifth consecutive start for the Bulldogs (19-9-1, 3-0 WCC).

Billy Moon had four RBIs for Gonzaga, including a three-run home run.

• Pacific Lutheran beat Whitworth 8-0 at Merkel Field to avoid a sweep in the three-game Northwest Conference series, ending the Pirates’ four-game winning streak. Whitworth (14-16, 8-7 NWC) had four hits on the day, two of them by Gerhard Muelheims.

Pirates starter Kramer Kembel (2-1) recorded only one out. He allowed one hit, walked two batters and hit another to leave the game with the bases loaded.

• Oregon avoided a Pac-10 sweep with a 9-0 victory over Washington (9-20, 2-4 Pac-10) in Eugene, Ore.

Softball

Whitworth is on the verge of clinching a spot in the Northwest Conference softball tournament after sweeping a doubleheader with Pacifc in Forest Grove, Ore.

The Pirates (15-13, 13-7 NWC) won 13-7 and 8-6 on Sunday to complete a series sweep. Whitworth can clinch a tournament berth with one win during today’s doubleheader with Lewis & Clark College in Portland.

In the first game Sunday, Jill Pecka hit her first career home run and had three RBIs for Whitworth. In Game 2, Jessica Dickson pitched a complete game.

• Freshman Kaitlin Inglesby allowed one unearned run over six innings and went 3 for 4 with five RBIs at the plate as No. 7/6 Washington beat No. 12/9 California 9-1 in Pac-10 action in Seattle. The game ended after six innings because of the mercy rule.

The Huskies improved to 29-4, 4-2 Pac-10.

Golf

Washington State finished tied in 12th place at the Arizona State University Thunderbird Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., ending the three-round event with a team score of 883. Trent Sanders had the best weekend for the Cougars, finishing tied for seventh place at 9-over 222.

• Gonzaga’s Victoria Fallgren tired for second with a two-day total of 6-over 146 at the Gonzaga Spring Individual tournament at Liberty Lake Golf Course. Washington’s Darcie Richmond was medalist with a 4-over 144. No team scores were kept.

Rowing

The Gonzaga men’s rowing team closed out the George Washington University Invitational with two second-place finishes and one third-place finish. The Bulldogs took second in the Freshman 8+ and Junior Varsity 8+ and claimed third in the Varsity 8+.