UW women in 14th at NCAAs

Sophomore Paige Mackenzie fired a 3-under-par 69 Thursday, helping Washington move into a four-way tie for 14th place after three rounds of the NCAA Women’s Golf Championships at Auburn, Ala.

The Huskies, making their sixth appearance at the championships, have never finished higher than 16th. The Huskies will be teamed with Arizona and Tennessee for today’s final round at the Lake Course at Grand National.

UCLA (858) leads Oklahoma State by five shots in the team race.

UCLA’s Susie Mathews and Oklahoma State’s Karin Sjodin are tied for first at 8-under 208, one shot ahead of California’s Sarah Huarte.

Arizona’s Lani Elston of Spokane is tied for 93rd at 231 after a third-round 80.

Men’s golf

Freshman Alex Prugh (Ferris High) shot an even-par 72 at the Crosswater Course at Sunriver to help Washington tie for 10th place after the opening round of the NCAA West Regional at Bend, Ore.

The Huskies are at 5-over 293, 10 shots behind leader UCLA. Also for UW, Dan Potter (Gonzaga Prep) and Corey Prugh (Ferris) carded 75s.

Hawaii’s Matt Kodama (Mt. Spokane High) is tied for 17th at 71, five shots behind leader Travis Johnson of UCLA.

Softball

Dominique Lastrapes went 4 for 4 and Sarah Hyatt added a two-run double in the sixth as top-seeded Washington (37-16) defeated eighth-seeded Chattanooga 4-1 to open NCAA regional play at Athens, Ga.

The Huskies will play fifth-seeded Michigan State this afternoon.

•Former Lake City High standout Ingrid Lochelt belted her first home run of the season to help Oregon State (41-26) register a 7-0 win over Bowling Green in an NCAA Regional Tournament game at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Lochelt, a sophomore who transferred after playing her freshman season at the University of Kentucky, finished 2 for 3, teaming with Sherina Galvan to launch back-to-back homers in the fourth inning.

Baseball

Reserved bench tickets are still available for the first Northwest League All-Star Game, scheduled Aug. 3 at Avista Stadium.

Upper- and lower-box tickets have been sold out for the game, which will commemorate the league’s 50th anniversary. For the available $5 tickets, call 535-2922 or 1-800-827-6518.

Men’s basketball

Guard Jason Bowden-Key of Prosser High in Chicago has signed a national letter of intent to play at the University of Idaho, coach Leonard Perry announced.

Bowden-Key, a four-year starter, averaged 19 points, eight steals, six rebounds and four assists per game during his senior season. He finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer, with 1,716 points.

As announced previously, Perry also signed Jerod Haynes out of the Chicago area and Mike Kale from Nevada.

Television

The Sun Belt Conference has signed an enhanced agreement with ESPN for football and basketball broadcasts, the conference and ESPN announced.

The agreement extends the original contract, which began in the 2002-03 season, through 2007-08.

This year’s football broadcast schedule will be announced July 19.

Idaho plays football in the eight-team conference.