Arnold pitches Cougs to Pac-10 baseball win

Washington State is making some noise in Pacific-10 Conference baseball.

Six strong innings by Chad Arnold and a pair of RBIs apiece by Jared Prince and Shea Vucinich paced the Cougars to a 4-3 victory over UCLA on Saturday at Bailey-Brayton field, as WSU continued its best conference start in more than a decade.

The Cougars are 4-1 in the Pac-10 (12-12 overall), the same mark they opened the old Pac-10 North with in 1998. They’ve also won their first two conference series for the first time since 1995. UCLA fell to 10-16, 4-4.

Arnold (3-1), a redshirt sophomore, earned his third straight victory with a six-hit, three-strikeout effort, with Jeremy Johnson working the final three for his third save – including a pair of strikeouts in the eighth. Vucinich’s two-run single in the second capped a rally Prince started with a triple, and Prince added insurance with a solo home run to left-center in the eighth.

•Also in the Pac-10: Josh Spence struck out 14 to improve to 6-0 and third-ranked Arizona State (22-5, 7-1) worked over Washington 12-1 at Husky Ballpark. The Huskies are 10-17, 1-4.

•West Coast Conference: Sophomore Ryan Carpenter scattered six hits over 6 2/3 innings and Ryan Wiegand and Tyson Van Winkle had three hits apiece as Gonzaga continued 26th-ranked Pepperdine’s slide with a 4-1 win in Malibu, Calif.

Reliever A.J. Proszek worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth to preserve the victory, GU’s 20th of the year against seven losses. The Zags are 4-1 in the WCC, while the Waves slipped to 16-13, 0-5.

Van Winkle had three RBIs, all on singles, and Wiegand scored three times and doubled twice, moving two away from Jerrod Wong’s career record of 59.

•Northwest Conference: Whitworth twice surrendered late leads and dropped a doubleheader to league-leading George Fox at Merkel Field, 3-2 and 12-11. The Pirates (4-20, 2-16 NWC) rallied for eight runs in the bottom of the sixth inning of the second game behind three-run homers by JR Jarrell and Kevin Valerio to grab an 11-10 lead, but George Fox (19-6, 14-2) pushed across single runs in the seventh and ninth.

•NWAACC: CC Spokane suffered a loss in the first game of a doubleheader at Big Bend in Moses Lake, 2-1, before bouncing back for a 9-5 victory in the nightcap. Cam Christian pitched a three-hit complete game despite getting the loss.

In the second game, the Sasquatch rallied from a 5-0 deficit in the final three innings. Kelly Gau had three hits in the win for CCS (10-8, 2-6).

Big Bend 13-13, 2-7.

Softball

NWAACC: RBI doubles by Haley Bauman and Heather Jackson in the seventh inning of an international tiebreaker lifted Community Colleges of Spokane to a 6-4 victory and a split of their East Division showdown with Blue Mountain in Pendleton, Ore.

The Sasquatch (19-5, 9-3) remained a game behind BMCC (15-5, 10-2) after dropping the opener 8-1, committing three errors. Alex Cey’s two-run double gave CCS a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the second game, and pitcher Jessica Solbrack ran her record to 8-2 with a five-strikeout effort.

•Scenic West Athletic Conference: Karri Johnson pitched a four-hit shutout and Amanda Krier and Brianna Harbour each drove in three runs in North Idaho’s 9-0 blitz of Western Nevada at Memorial Field in Coeur d’Alene, but the Wildcats came back to win the second game 4-2. The host Cardinals moved to 23-16, 21-11, with Western Nevada 9-27 overall and in league.

•Northwest Conference: Lacey Kerr’s sacrifice fly tied the game and Mandee Edwards scored the winner on a wild pitch as Whitworth (9-13, 5-7) rallied in the seventh inning for a 4-2 win over Puget Sound and a split of their doubleheader in Pasco. UPS (9-15, 3-8) won the opener 9-0.

•Pac-10 Conference: Third-ranked Washington (21-3) erupted for 15 hits in an 11-3 romp over No. 4 Arizona State in Seattle in a game shortened to five innings by the mercy rule.

Rowing

San Diego Crew Classic: Two Washington State boats – the varsity 8 and novice 8 – advanced to today’s finals with the third-fastest times out of the heats.