College roundup: WSU takes series from 10th-ranked Beavers
Reliever Scotty Sunitsch pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings and Washington State broke open a tight game with four runs in the eighth inning to beat No. 10 Oregon State 8-3 on Saturday at Pullman.
Trek Stemp had four hits, two RBIs and two runs scored to lead the Cougars (12-20, 5-10 Pac-12) to their first series win over the Beavers since 2010 and first series win over a top-10 team since taking two at No. 6 Oregon in 2012.
Dugan Shirer had three hits and Stefan Van Horn added two hits and drove in two runs while Sunitsch improved to 2-0. Van Horn and Stemp had two-run singles in the eighth. Stemp recorded his third four-hit game of the season.
The Beavers fell to 23-9, 6-6.
Gonzaga 10, San Francisco 2: Freshman Jace VanDeBrake slugged his first two homers, including a grand slam, and Gonzaga (21-11, 10-4 WCC) bounced back from its first loss in eight games to top the Dons (11-26, 6-8) in San Francisco.
VanDeBrake’s grand slam came in the ninth inning and was the first for Gonzaga since 2010. His six RBIs were the most for a Bulldog since Cameron Edman also drove in six in 2011.
Gonzaga had 17 hits, including four by VanDeBrake and three by Tyler Frost.
Eli Morgan (6-1) went 6 2/3 innings and Wyatt Mills finished for his first save.
Washington 8, UCLA 7: The Huskies (18-12, 8-6 Pac-12) scored on three bases-loaded walks given up by reliever Tucker Forbes in the seventh inning to rally for the victory over the Bruins (15-17, 6-8) in Seattle.
Willamette 8-2, Whitworth 7-7: The Pirates bounced back from an 10th-nning loss in the series opener with a victory over the Bearcats (18-17, 11-12) in the second game of a doubleheader that gave them at least a share of the NWC regular-season title.
No. 10 Whitworth (24-8, 16-7) leads second-place Pacific Lutheran (15-8) by a game in the standings and each team has one conference game remaining Sunday. Regardless of the outcomes, Whitworth will host the NWC tournament next weekend via a tiebreaker.
Willamette won the first game in the 10th via a two-out dropped fly ball and an RBI single. Whitworth’s Jordan McGowan had four hits and Garrett Hughes homered in the loss.
In the Game 2, Ryan Kingma (7-2) went eight innings and Casey Isa had three hits, including a homer, for the Pirates. Jeremy Druffel also homered.
CC Spokane 2-4, Blue Mountain: 1-7: Jake Olson had a pair of doubles in the first game, including one in the seventh that drove in the go-ahead run as the Sasquatch (16-10, 5-7 NWAC) split a doubleheader with the Timberwolves (10-16, 4-8) in Spokane. Kade Woods pitched eight innings with Austen Jones finishing for the save. Blue Mountain used 14 hits to win the second game.
Softball
Linfield 15-5, Whitworth 2-6: Down to their final strike and in danger of losing their lead in the Northwest Conference standings, the Pirates (27-10, 19-7) pulled out a victory in the eighth inning and a doubleheader split with the Wildcats (25-12, 17-9).
The second-place Wildcats ran away with the opener 15-2 in five innings and led 5-1 going into the bottom of the seventh in Game 2. But Kelsey Downey’s two-out, two-strikes, bases-loaded triple sent the game into an extra innings and Tessa Matthews ended it with a two-out, walk-off home run.
Whitworth leads Linfield by two games going into Sunday’s twinbill that ends the regular season.
NWAC Crossover: CC Spokane split its two games at the tournament in Yakima, losing to Chemeketa 10-7 but beating Mt. Hood 9-5.
Makenzie Norwill and Kylee Andreason homered in the loss while Madilyn Naccarato hit a home run in the Game 2 victory. Andreason finished with six hits.
North Idaho College lost to Bellevue 9-3 with Katie Barron collecting hitting a homer and driving in three for the Cardinals in the loss.
Washington 2, Cal 1: Julia DePonte had three hits, including an RBI single in the fourth inning for the Huskies’ second run, and Washington (28-8, 9-5 Pac-12) beat Cal (20-17, 5-5) in Seattle.
Rowing
Washington State picked up one win and three second-places in the first session of the Clemson Invitational at Lake Hartwell in South Carolina and came back with three second-places and a third in the afternoon session. The event continues today.
The win was notched by the third varsity eight.
Track and field
Washington State women’s 1600 relay team of Regyn Gaffney, Dominique Keel, Christiana Ekelem and Liz Harper finished third in the fastest heat of the invitational section at the Mt. SAC Relays in 3 minutes, 36.76 seconds, the fourth-best overall at the meet held at Cerritos College in Norwalk, Calif. The time ranks fourth at WSU all-time.
CJ Allen ran the men’s invitational 400 hurdles in 50.26, winning his heat but fifth-fastest overall. Former Cougar All-American Jeshua Anderson was second in 49.54.
At the Long Beach (California) Invitational, Katie Mahoney broke her 2014 school record in the 1,500, finishing as the top collegian in 4:22.92.
Tennis
The Gonzaga women’s team picked up a school-record 15th dual win, beating Pacific 4-2 in Stockton, California. The previous record came in 2010.