In brief: Fielding, repeat title elude Huskies
Softball: Danielle Lawrie’s college career came to a tearful end with a defensive meltdown by her defending champion Washington Huskies.
K’Lee Arredondo drove in two runs and Karissa Buchanan scored twice as Arizona scored three unearned runs against Lawrie and sent the Huskies home with a 4-3 defeat Saturday at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
Lawrie had won her previous five starts against her Pac-10 rival with a 1.00 ERA, but she wasn’t able to keep the 10th-seeded Wildcats from capitalizing on three defensive miscues by the usually sound Huskies.
Washington (50-9) hadn’t allowed more than one unearned run in a game all season and came in with the best fielding percentage of the eight World Series teams and the eighth-best mark in the nation.
Amanda Fleischman misplayed two grounders that resulted in Arizona runs, and the Wildcats added a key insurance run after Morgan Stuart bobbled Brittany Lastrapes’ two-out grounder in the seventh inning. Stuart dove in a bid to catch Lauren Schutzler’s infield single to move pinch-runner Becca Tikey to second, and Lawrie then allowed a clean single to Arredondo to make it 4-2.
Jenn Salling cut the deficit to one with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh after Morgan Smith’s triple. That marked the second time the Huskies scored as a result of an out being overturned because of an illegal pitch.
Later in the day, Kenzie Fowler struck out 13 in a two-hitter as the Wildcats beat Hawaii 5-1 to earn a rematch against Tennessee in today’s semifinals. The other semifinal will feature Georgia against UCLA. After last year’s runner-up Florida eliminated Missouri with a 5-0 win, Georgia eliminated Florida 3-2.
Storm outlast Sparks in outdoor contest
WNBA: A faint haze hung in the air and the smell of burning rubber was slightly nauseating through the opening half. But aside from a fire at an auto scrap yard miles away, the WNBA’s second outdoor game was a hit – for Seattle.
Los Angeles (1-6) used a 19-4 run to pull within 69-66 with 1:41 remaining, suddenly grabbing rebounds and making shots the team couldn’t connect on earlier in the matchup to fall behind. But Storm guard Sue Bird shook second-year guard Kristi Toliver off her and sank a jumper and then a three-pointer to quiet the rowdy crowd. Toliver pouted after each shot, upset to miss the defensive stop.
Even a late 3-pointer by Toliver couldn’t prevent a 79-75 Storm (7-1) win before 6,026 fans in Carson, Calif.
Bird scored all seven of her fourth-quarter points in the final two minutes, finishing with 22 overall. Los Angeles forward Candace Parker, who helped lure Lauren Jackson into foul trouble, finished with a game-high 24 points and eight boards.
Fowler keeps lead at Memorial
Golf: Rickie Fowler showed poise beyond his 21 years, unfazed by six hours of rain delays at the Memorial or a series of charges up the leaderboard to keep his three-shot lead at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.
Fowler showed some imagination with a cut 9-iron over the water to 6 feet for his first birdie of the round, and he kept bogeys off his card for the second straight day to shoot 3-under-par 69 to lead Tim Petrovic (68) and Ricky Barnes, who shot a tournament-best 62 while playing alongside Tiger Woods, who is at 6-under 210.
Fowler was at 16-under 200 and had the largest 54-hole lead at the Memorial since Woods led by six shots in 2000.
•Armour III, Price tied in Champions Tour event: Nick Price shot a 6-under 65 to pull into a tie with Tommy Armour III after second-round play at the Principal Charity Classic in West Des Moines, Iowa.
Price, who was at 10-under 132 with Armour, will enter today’s final round with at least a share of the lead for the third year in a row at Iowa.
•Augusta State in first final: Battling a stomach bug, Taylor Floyd carried a lead for most of his match against Florida State’s Wesley Graham, hitting four birdies on The Honors Course at Chattanooga, Tenn., including one on the 18th hole that gave him a 2-up win and helped send Augusta State to its first NCAA Division I golf finals to face top-seeded Oklahoma State.
The No. 6 Jaguars clinched the match 4-1 when Henrik Norlander hit an 84-yard lob wedge for an eagle on the par-5 17th hole to win his match against Drew Kittleson 3 and 1. Augusta State, playing in its 11th NCAA tournament, will face an Oklahoma State program that has played in every tournament in the NCAA championship’s 64-year history and won 10 titles. The Cowboys last title came in 2006, while the Jaguars’ best finish was fifth in 2002.
Oklahoma State was the favorite in match play in last year’s tournament – the first to feature such a format – but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by fellow NCAA powerhouse Georgia.
Armstrong still third at Luxembourg tour
Cycling: Lance Armstrong doesn’t have the legs to win the Tour of Luxembourg and the seven-time Tour de France champion isn’t really worried about it.
Armstrong, who is competing in the race as part of his preparations for the Tour de France, held on to third place in the overall standings after Frenchman Tony Gallopin won the third stage in a sprint finish.
Gallopin edged Italian Giovanni Visconti and Alexandre Geniez of France, while Armstrong finished in the main pack in 22nd place in Diekirch, Luxembourg.
The 38-year-old Texan is 30 seconds behind race leader Matteo Carrara, who leads defending champion Frank Schleck by 1 second.