Zags, Cougars post conference baseball wins

Strong arms and big bats carried Gonzaga University to a 3-1 West Coast Conference baseball victory over No. 26 Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif., on Friday.

Mark Fields (4-1) pitched four-hit ball – all singles – before yielding to closer Cody Martin in the ninth inning for the final three outs. Fields retired 11 batters in a row over one stretch in earning his fourth straight win.

Drew Heid had a two-run home run and Ryan Wiegand a solo shot for the Gonzaga (19-7, 3-1 WCC) runs in the sixth. Pepperdine is 16-12, 0-4.

•Outfielder Garry Kuykendall’s two-run double highlighted a six-run seventh that carried Washington State to a 7-2 Pac-10 win over visiting UCLA.

The Cougars (11-12, 3-1) sent 10 men to the plate and went through three UCLA (10-16, 4-3) pitchers in the sixth. Alex Burg had a solo home run in the fifth and a run-scoring single in the sixth for the Cougars and Matt Way (4-2) pitched a complete-game five-hitter, matching his career high with 10 strikeouts.

•Junior right-hander Mike Leake (7-1) allowed just four hits and struck out 10 in 72/3 innings as No. 3 Arizona State (21-5, 6-1) handed Washington (10-16, 1-3) a 3-1 Pac-10 loss at Safeco Field.

College softball

Community Colleges of Spokane amassed 24 hits, 19 of them singles, in a 14-1, 7-1 NWAACC Eastern Region sweep of Treasure Valley in Ontario, Ore.

Kim Hare (North Central) was 2 for 2 with a double and two RBIs and Jessica Solbrack had two hits and three RBIs in the five-inning first game.

In the second game, Katie Bologna (Coeur d’Alene) had three hits and two RBIs for CCS (18-4, 8-3). Solbrack and Sean Topp combined to limit TV (6-11, 2-7) to three hits.

CCS visits Blue Mountain (9-1) today with first place on the line.

•Sophomore Karri Johnson ran her scoreless-inning streak to 28, limiting Western Nevada to four hits as North Idaho College won the first game of a Scenic West Athletic Conference doubleheader 5-0 in Coeur d’Alene.

The Cardinals completed the sweep with an 11-2, five-inning win in the second game ended by the eight-run mercy rule. Nina Gonzalez pitched a one-hitter and Renae Kimbell and Amanda Krier had three-run homers in a six-run fifth that ended it. Lauren Maloney led off the bottom of the first with a homer for NIC (22-15, 20-10). Western Nevada is 8-26 both in league and overall.

•Danielle Lawrie pitched a no-hitter, striking out 12 and walking just one, to lead No. 3 Washington (29-5, 2-2) to a 6-0 Pac-10 win over No. 9 Arizona (31-8, 3-1) in Seattle.

Arizona came in leading the country in scoring, averaging just more than nine runs a game. It’s the first time the Wildcats have been no-hit since 2000.

College track

Courtney Kirkwood, a freshman from Othello, threw the javelin 151 feet, 1 inch, the sixth-best throw in Washington State women’s history, to finish second in the College/University Section B at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin, Texas.

She was one of a handful of Cougars who reached or improved regional qualifying marks in the meet that ends today.

Matt Lamb placed third in the men’s discus in the University/College Section A with a throw of 184-5 to improve his regional-qualifying mark.

Prep baseball

The three Greater Spokane League games scheduled were postponed because of the weather.

Two are rescheduled for today – Shadle Park at Mead at 1 p.m. and Mt. Spokane at Rogers at 2. Central Valley will visit East Valley at 4 p.m. Monday.