NWC co-champion Whitworh to host title game
After a conference call Sunday between Northwest Conference commissioner Chuck Lindemenn and involved athletics directors from Whitworth and Lewis & Clark, NWC tie breaking procedures have been clarified and Whitworth will have the top seed for the NWC men’s basketball tournament this week.
The Pirates will host the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal between Lewis & Clark and Puget Sound. The championship will be Saturday at a time still to be determined.
Whitworth (22-3) and L&C (18-6) tied for the NWC men’s basketball championship with 13-3 records. UPS (18-6) was third with a record of 11-5.
The tie was broken by the fourth criteria on the NWC tie breaking list. The teams were compared on how they did against all the other teams below them in the conference standings, beginning with 9th-place Linfield. Both teams completed sweeps up until fourth place Pacific, a team the Pirates beat twice but L&C lost to on the road.
Based on NWC bylaws, no passes will be accepted for Saturday’s game. Ticket prices will be announced on Monday. Season ticket holders will have first right of refusal on their current seats.
College baseball
Nick Ison and Steve Kost allowed just three singles and the Cougars used a five-run fifth inning to break the game open as Washington State University defeated Cal State Northridge 6-1, at Matador Field in Northridge, Calif.
The victory gives WSU the series win as it improves to 2-1 while the Matadors fall to 8-6.
Ison, the senior right-hander who was limited to six starts in 2006 before season-ending surgery, was masterful as he worked five innings of no-hit ball in his 2007 debut, walking two and striking out one.
After not allowing a base runner until the fourth, Ison hit Jason Dabbs to lead off the fifth. One out later, Dabbs came around to score an unearned run on a throwing error by shortstop Paul Gran. The run came across without the benefit of a hit and stood as the only Matador run of the day. Kost came on in the sixth and worked four scoreless innings of relief. The junior lefthander allowed three singles while striking out one to earn his first save of the season.
The three hits by the Matadors marked the lowest offensive output by a Cougar opponent since Mar. 9, 2006, when WSU pitchers held Chicago State to a pair of singles.
“Nick did a great job today of throwing strikes and letting his defense do the work,” said WSU head coach Donnie Marbut. “Then Kost came in and shut them down the rest of the way. We got a few big hits in the fifth and were able to come away with the series win.”
Offensively, WSU did not get a hit until the fourth but then had all it needed in a five-run fifth. The Cougars sent 10 men to the plate in the frame, with the first six batters reaching base. Run-scoring singles by four different Cougars, along with an unearned run, gave WSU a 5-0 lead. WSU added a single run in the seventh to close out the scoring.
WSU continues its six-game, season-opening road trip Thursday when it visits No. 14 Texas in Austin. First pitch is scheduled for 12:30 p.m., PST.
•Whitworth dropped a pair of games during the second day of the Regence BlueShield of Idaho Tournament in Lewiston, Idaho.
The Pirates (0-4) fell in the first game to Albertson (4-1) 7-2, and lost to Lewis-Clark State (4-0) 8-2 in the second.