Gonzaga sits alone in first place in WCC baseball

Gonzaga sits alone in first place in the West Coast Conference.

Cameron Edman’s three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning gave the Bulldogs a comeback 5-3 baseball victory over Loyola Marymount on Friday in Los Angeles in the opener of a three-game weekend series between the schools that entered the day sharing first.

Given a two-run cushion, Cody Martin struck out two in the bottom of the ninth in earning his seventh save as the 24th-ranked Bulldogs (20-10-1, 4-0) remained unbeaten in WCC play.

Edman led GU’s nine-hit attack with three.

Loyola (19-13, 3-1) got to struggling GU starter Ryan Carpenter for three runs in the sixth for a 3-2 lead.

• Cody Bartlett gave Washington State a lead with a single in the third inning, but the Cougars couldn’t make it hold up in dropping a 3-1 Pac-10 decision at Arizona State.

The 10th-ranked Sun Devils (23-9, 6-4 Pac-10) got to WSU starter Adam Conley (4-4) for two unearned runs after two were out in a three-run fifth inning, dropping the Cougars (14-15, 2-8) below .500.

Conley, in his second straight complete game, scattered seven hits and one walk and struck out seven.

He was victimized by an error with two outs and the score tied in the fifth. WSU left the bases loaded in the seventh.

• Cal’s Erik Johnson (5-1) outdueled Washington’s Geoff Brown (1-3) as the Golden Bears (21-9, 7-3 Pac-10) pulled out a 6-2 decision over the Huskies (10-21, 2-5) in Seattle.

Softball

With freshman Kaitlin Inglesby (18-2) pitching her third straight victory in conference play and collecting her ninth home run, No. 7/8 Washington shut out No. 8/7 Arizona 3-0 in the Huskies’ first Pac-10 road game of the season in Tucson, Ariz.

It drew Washington (30-4) into a first-place tie with Arizona (34-8) and UCLA at 5-2.

• North Idaho College’s scheduled Scenic West Athletic Conference doubleheader with Western Nevada in Coeur d’Alene was rained out. The teams will attempt to play three games today.

Track and field

J Hopkins, Ramsey Hopkins and the men’s 4x400 relay team led a strong showing by Washington State at the 53rd Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.

Hopkins led a 1-2 Cougars finish in the men’s 400 hurdles, winning in a time of 51.46 seconds. Dana Wells was second with a lifetime-best 51.67.

The men’s 4x400, reunited for the first time since the NCAA Indoor Championships with Greg Hornsby’s return from an injury suffered there, won with a season-best 3 minutes, 7.87 seconds.

And Ramsey Hopkins ran a lifetime-best 14.17 seconds to finish second in the men’s 110 hurdles.

Other highlights for the Cougars included Christine Rice’s 5-foot-8 3/4 high jump that earned her second; the women’s 4x400 relay team finishing third with a season-best 3:41.28; and a handful of lifetime bests in the men’s 1,500, led by Matt Conrath shaving 6 seconds off his time with a 3:46.69 for 15th among 146 runners.