Sasquatch win first baseball title since 1995
Scott Santschi drove in four runs, three coming on a bases-loaded double, and reliever Luke Farden tossed five shutout innings to lead the Community Colleges of Spokane baseball team to a 10-3 victory over visiting Walla Walla on Sunday.
The victory gives the Sasquatch (27-12, 18-10) their first Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges East Division title since 1995. CC Spokane and Treasure Valley finished with identical conference records, but the Sasquatch earned the title and the top seed into the Eastern Region tournament by virtue of having a better record against third-place Columbia Basin College.
The tournament, which will be played at Devils Stadium in Pasco, begins Friday.
•The Saint Mary’s Gaels (19-29, 12-18) scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to rally for a 9-8 victory over the Gonzaga Bulldogs (28-21, 15-11) in West Coast Conference play in Moraga, Calif.
Kiel Thibault went 3 for 3 with an RBI and two runs scored to pace the Bulldogs, who must win two of their final four games against Loyola Marymount this weekend in Los Angeles to win the Coast Division.
•Jack Spradlin struck out 10 in seven-plus innings of work to lead the Southern California Trojans (32-15, 12-6) to a 7-2 win over the visiting Washington State Cougars (20-32, 0-18) in Pac-10 play.
WSU will have one final chance to win a Pac-10 game this season when it hosts UCLA in a season-ending series beginning Friday.
•Third-ranked Oregon State (39-8, 17-4) beat Washington (27-21, 7-11) 3-1 to complete a three-game Pac-10 series sweep in Seattle.
Softball
The Washington Huskies earned a No. 1 seed and are seeded 16th overall heading into the NCAA Regional Tournament.
The Huskies (31-20) will head to Lincoln, Neb., and open against Creighton (44-11) on Friday.
•Whitworth College announced it will not renew the contract of head coach Teresa Hansen-Laher.
Auto racing
Rookie Tony Berry took his second consecutive Inland Northwest Sprint Car win in as many outings, and did so the hard way.
The 21 year-old Gonzaga University student drove the HEI Motorsports/River City River Runners entry from the back of the pack to claim the win in the 20-lap feature race at Stateline Speedway on Saturday. Justin Popple and Dave Hill rounded out the top-three.
Rob Ballard won his second Hobby Stock main event of the season.
•Spokane’s Kevin Richards charged from 12th place at the start to win his first main event of the season Saturday at the Wenatchee Valley Super Oval as the Inland Northwest Superstocks ran their lone race outside of Spokane. Richards was the quickest qualifier, but INSSA rules call for an inverted 12 car starting grid.