Area roundup: No. 10 Oklahoma drops No. 6 Washington to elimination bracket at Women’s World Series
Sydney Romero homered and No. 10 Oklahoma (58-9) beat No. 6 Washington (49-13) 3-1 in the second round of the NCAA Division I Women’s World Series in Oklahoma City on Friday.
Washington drops into an elimination game against the winner of No. 5 UCLA and No. 9 Texas A&M on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
Paige Parker went 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run on three hits and a walk with six strikeouts and Paige Lowery picked up the save recording the final two outs of the game without a hit.
The Huskies brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh after Morganne Flores led the inning off with a single, but Taylor Van Zee flied out to center off Parker. Lowery came in and struck out Julia DePonte looking and got Trysten Melhart to ground to first for the final out.
Oklahoma got its first run in the second. Fale Aviu was hit leading off the inning and went to second on Nicloe Pendley’s single. Aviu went to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on another.
The Sooners made it 2-0 in the fifth as Kelsey Arnold reached via error and scored on Aviu’s single. Romero’s homer came in the sixth.
Washington got its lone run on Ali Aguilar’s solo home run. Taran Alvelo allowed three runs, two earned on five hits and a walk over six innings.
Baseball
Micah Brown went 2 for 3 with a two-run home run in the first inning and Lewis-Clark State (41-14) beat Faulkner (Ala.) (54-13) 6-4 in the NAIA championship game at Ed Cheff Stadium in Lewiston.
It’s Lewis-Clark State’s third consecutive title and 19th total national championship, all since 1984.
Faulkner put two on with one out in the ninth inning, but reliever Anthony Balderas coaxed a double-play grounder on his only pitch of the game to close it out.
Faulkner scored twice in the top of the first, but Lewis-Clark State responded with three in the bottom half, including Brown’s homer. Faulkner picked up single runs in the second and fourth innings and led 4-3 going into the bottom of the sixth.
With two out in the sixth, Gunnar Buhner singled and went to second after Cooper Goldby was hit by a pitch. Both runners moved up on a balk, and Buhner scored on a wild pitch.
L-C State picked up two more in the seventh. Brown doubled, then scored on a triple by J.J. Robinson, and with two down Robinson scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-4.
Daulton Blackwell gave up one hit without a walk over three innings of relief to earn the win.