Nic, Csi Split Portable Twinbill
The North Idaho College and College of Southern Idaho baseball teams remained where they started Saturday in the Scenic West Athletic Conference standings.
NIC rallied for the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning during the opener for a 3-2 decision. CSI salvaged a split with an 8-2 victory.
The teams managed to play two games of a scheduled four-game set. They had to go out of state to do it, because NIC’s field was too sloppy for a second consecutive day. The doubleheader was moved to Spokane’s Rogers High School.
In the opener, Cardinals catcher Rob Sumner knocked in the winning run with a one-out single. Joe Bisant, hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, scored.
NIC pitcher Ryan Lupul (5-1) went the distance, limiting the Eagles to three hits while striking out nine and walking two.
Sumner and Keith Osso had two hits apiece for the Cards in the opener.
In the second game, CSI took a 5-1 in the second when Adrian Thomas hit a two-run homer. The Eagles added two more runs in the seventh.
NIC moved to 21-16 overall, 10-10 in the SWAC. CSI is 22-17, 11-11.
Chad Pennington outdueled Matt O’Brien , leading fourth-ranked Arizona State to a 3-1 win over Washington State in a televised Pacific-10 Conference game at Bailey-Brayton Field in Pullman.
Pennington (7-1) scattered seven hits and allowed one run in eight-plus innings, his longest outing of the season. He lost his shutout bid on Ray Hattenburg’s solo home run in the seventh.
O’Brien (6-3), making his third career start for WSU, limited the nation’s No. 1 scoring team to three runs and no extra-base hits. The senior from Seattle struck out three and walked one while pitching his first complete game.
The Sun Devils (32-9, 8-3) led 1-0 after six innings, on Mike Lopez’s two-out RBI single in the third. Mel Stocker’s RBI single to center in the seventh stretched the lead to 2-0.
Hattenburg, 3 for 4 on the day, hit his fourth homer of the season to cut into the lead. ASU scored in the eighth and called on Eric Doble in the ninth for his sixth save.
The Cougars (14-24, 2-9) lost their seventh consecutive game, but the defeat was nothing like Friday’s 24-3 thumping. The teams complete the three-game series at 1 p.m. today.
Jason Young (5-0) pitched a six-hitter to win his 11th consecutive game, and Stanford defeated visiting Washington 7-2 to move into a three-way tie for first place in the Pac-10, with ASU and UCLA.
Joe Borchard had a two-run single and Chris O’Riordan added a two-run double, both with two out in the third inning, as the fifth-ranked Cardinal (28-9, 8-3) took a 5-0 lead on the way to a seventh consecutive win. Michael Done of the Huskies (14-19, 3-8) extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a ninth-inning single.
Barry Matthews (8-1) scattered six hits and visiting Gonzaga (20-16, 11-6) defeated San Diego 5-2 in the first game of a West Coast Conference doubleheader.
Marty Hayes squeezed home Josh Harris in the 11th, giving the Toreros (25-20-1, 8-9) a 6-5 in the second game. USD’s Kevin Reese had three RBIs to become the school’s all-time leader, with 185.
GU’s Jason Bay was 2 for 4 in the opener. Adam Stokey of the Zags went 2 for 4 with two RBIs in the second game.
Matt Squires and Jason Reynolds had RBI singles in the fifth, allowing Whitworth (11-17, 6-8) to defeat visiting Linfield 6-4 and split a Northwest Conference doubleheader.
Scott Cannon went 4 for 4 with two RBIs as the Wildcats (13-13, 6-5) won the opener 6-4.
Whitworth’s Nick Schuerman went 4 for 6 on the day, with five runs and three RBIs. Schuerman homered twice in the first game.
Softball
Trisha Tang’s bases-clearing double in the first supported Kira Bliss, who pitched a six-hitter, and Whitworth (3-15, 3-7) defeated visiting George Fox 8-2 to earn a split in the Northwest Conference.
Pirates catcher Jessica Klingeman was 3 for 3 in the second game, with two runs and two RBIs. Anita Orlowski hit a three-run homer in the second and Beth Davis allowed one earned run as the Bruins (5-19, 2-13) won the opener 12-4.