Florko Helps Cards Split

Area baseball

Chris Florko belted a two-run homer in the fourth inning to break a 6-6 tie and send North Idaho College to a 9-6 victory over Treasure Valley CC and a split of their doubleheader Friday at Coeur d’Alene.

Treasure Valley won the first game, halted in the fifth inning under a 10-run rule, 12-2.

Keith Osso accounted for most of the remaining NIC runs in the nightcap, belting a grand-slam homer in the second inning and driving in five runs.

WSU 6, Minnesota 5

Ray Hattenburg scored the winning run on a bases-loaded wild pitch in the ninth inning to lead the Cougars (9-2) past the host Gophers (6-5) in the first round of the Hormel Foods Classic at Minneapolis.

Minnesota scored all of its runs in the first two innings off Washington State’s ace left-hander Wade Parrish.

Today, WSU plays No. 13 Wichita State with No. 1 Florida State on tap Sunday.

“This is a weekend that can really tell us where we are with this team,” said coach Steve Farrington. The Cougars are off to their best start in a decade.

Washington 8, Gonzaga 4

Dominic Woody doubled, homered and drove in three runs for the Huskies (8-4) as Jeff Heaverlo improved his record to 3-0 by defeating the Bulldogs (3-5) at Seattle.

Ed Erickson’s two-run homer broke a 4-4 tie in the home half the fifth inning after Gonzaga had knotted the game on Adam Stokey’s run-scoring double and a single by Barry Matthews. Woody hit his home run with a man aboard in the eighth.

Bo Hart had three singles for Gonzaga, which stopped a 21-game hitting streak for UW designated hitter Nick Stefonick.