Area roundup: GU rowers claim WCC championship

Gonzaga’s win in the varsity 8-plus race gave the Bulldogs’ women’s rowing team the West Coast Conference title on Lake Natoma Saturday in Gold River, California.

San Diego won the varsity 4-plus and second varsity 8-plus races, but GU’s varsity 8-plus win served as the tiebreaker.

The win gave the Bulldogs its second berth to the NCAA championships in the past three years.

Gonzaga swept the conference’s major individual awards. Kara Soucek was named the conference’s rower of the year, Kary Dougherty was named coxswain of the year, Isabelle Belzil earned newcomer of the year and coach Glenn Putyrae was named coach of the year.

The NCAA championships will be held May 29-31 on Lake Natoma.

Baseball

Gonzaga was eliminated from postseason contention with a 17-3 loss to Pepperdine in a West Coast Conference game in Malibu, California.

The Bulldogs needed a sweep against the Waves to have a shot at claiming the fourth and final seed to the WCC tournament.

Pepperdine put up 10 runs in the fourth – highlighted by Chris Fornaci’s grand slam.

Joey Harris drove in all three runs for Gonzaga (24-27, 14-12), which will play the Waves (26-26, 16-10) today at 1 in its season finale.

• Andrew Snow’s RBI single in the bottom of the 11th gave No. 12 Arizona State a 6-5 walk-off win over Washington State in a Pac-12 Conference game in Phoenix.

Ian Sagdal and Ben Roberts drove in two runs apiece for the Cougars, who begin a three-game series with Stanford on Friday in Pullman.

• Community Colleges of Spokane (28-16) was eliminated from the Northwest Athletic Conference regional tournament after a pair of losses at Minnitti Field in Tacoma.

The Sasquatch opened with a 9-1 loss to top-seeded Tacoma (33-12). CCS couldn’t get anything going against Titans starter Justin Vernia, who allowed a hit and an unearned run while striking out 12 in eight innings.

CCS then fell 4-2 to Southwestern Oregon (19-25). The Lakers scored runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to overcome an early 2-1 deficit.

Brett Neighbors had two hits and two RBIs for the Sasquatch.

Softball

Lexi Miller’s double in the bottom of the ninth scored Berkley Fisher and gave Community Colleges of Spokane (44-4) a 1-0 win over Southwestern Oregon (34-10) in the quarterfinals of the Northwest Athletic Conference tournament at Delta Park in Portland.

Sasquatch starter Lindsie Scholwinski pitched all nine innings, giving up three hits and a walk while striking out 15. Lakers’ starter Kalyn Paque gave up two hits and a walk. She also struck out 15.

CCS will play Clackamas (35-8) in today’s semifinal game. Clackamas advanced with a 6-0 win over Douglas.

The championship game is scheduled for Monday.

• After falling to No. 6 Alabama, No. 20 Washington stayed alive at the NCAA regional tournament with a 9-1 win over USC Upstate (44-10) at Rhoades Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Casey Stangel (Lake City HS) hit a two-run home run in the third inning. She also had a run-scoring triple in the first.

The Huskies (42-16) opened the day with a 9-0 loss to Alabama. They’ll play Alabama again this morning in the regional final.

Soccer

Borce Antanasov scored in the first half and Alex Nimo added a second-half goal to give the Vancouver Victory (4-0-0) a 2-0 win over the Spokane Shadow (1-1-1) in an Evergreen Premier League match at Spokane Falls Community College.

The Shadow play again May 30 against Yakima United at SFCC.

Men’s golf

Washington senior Cheng-Tsung Pan birdied five of his last seven holes to shoot a 5-under 67 and win the NCAA Bremerton Regional at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Washington.

Pan finished the tournament at 13-under 203, four shots better than Michigan’s Kyle Mueller.

The Huskies tied for fourth place after shooting an 11-under 277 for the round, which earned them a spot in the NCAA finals for the 12th time in the past 14 years.

The finals begin May 29 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida.

Gonzaga’s James Fahy shot a 4-over 76 in the third round. He finished tied for 62nd at 10-over 226.

• Idaho struggled in the third and final round, shooting a 13-over 301 and finishing in a tie for 10th at the San Diego Regional at The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

Oklahoma ran away with the team title, finishing 20 strokes better than second-place Arizona State.

Idaho’s Daniel Sutton shot a 4-over 76 and tied for 21st at 3-over 219.

Track and field

Charlotte Muschamp led the Washington State women with a fourth-place finish in the high jump at the Pac-12 championships at UCLA’s Drake Stadium in Los Angeles.

Muschamp, who won the event last year, reached a season-best height of 5 feet, 10 1/2 inches.

Kyle Stevens led the WSU men with a fifth-place finish in the javelin (215-11).

The championships conclude today.