Area roundup: Cougars take Pac-10 baseball finale

Taylor Ard was 3 for 3, including a two-run home run and a pair of doubles, and scored five runs as the Washington State Cougars 26-28, 10-17) ended their season with a 13-1 victory over the Southern California Trojans (25-31, 13-14) in Pacific-10 Conference baseball action in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Senior James Wise (5-6) earned the win in the final start of his career. Wise allowed one run on five hits in six innings of work. Senior Paris Shewey threw three scoreless innings to notch his 10th save of the season, tying him for the conference lead.

WSU took two of three games in the series.

• Robert Refsnyder’s two-run triple capped a five-run second inning and the Arizona Wildcats (36-19, 16-12) completed a three-game Pac-10 season-ending sweep with an 8-2 win over the Washington Huskies (17-37, 6-21) in Tucson, Ariz.

Jacob Clem (4-6) took the loss for the Huskies. He allowed two runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Reliever Bryce Bandilla (5-3) got the win for Arizona with 3 2/3 scoreless innings.

Rowing

The Washington Huskies finished eighth and the Washington State Cougars placed 12th at the women’s NCAA Rowing Championships at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif.

The Huskies won the second varsity 8 Petite Final, while the varsity 8 and varsity 4 boats both placed fourth in the Grand Final.

The Cougars second varsity 8 and varsity 4 boats both finished 10th, while the varsity 8 boat placed 11th in the Petite Final.

Brown won the team title, beating runner-up Stanford in a tiebreaker. Cal was third.

• The Western Washington Vikings won both the varsity 8 and varsity 4 Grand Finals and rowed to their seventh straight women’s NCAA Division II team title at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif.

It was the first time in three years that the Vikings won both Grand Finals.

Soccer

Ken Thompson is returning to North Idaho College as the men’s soccer coach.

Thompson served as the assistant coach to Scott Moorcroft for four seasons from 2006-09 before departing to manage the Sting Soccer Club in 2010.

Thompson, a Coeur d’Alene native, has nearly 10 years of coaching experience and played in college for Gonzaga and Seattle Pacific.