Conley sharp for Cougs

Adam Conley struck out nine in eight innings to lead Washington State to a 3-1 nonconference baseball win over Utah Valley on Friday night at Bailey-Brayton Field in Pullman.

Conley (4-0) gave up just four hits and no walks. The Utah Valley (3-8) run was unearned.

WSU (7-4) scored twice in the first on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly and error. The final run came in the seventh on Tommy Richards’ suicide squeeze.

• Billy Moon extended his hitting streak to four games and he was one of three Bulldogs with multiple hits, but Gonzaga (5-7) dropped an 8-1 nonconference decision to Minnesota in Sacramento, Calif.

GU parlayed a Cameron Edman double, sacrifice and Royce Bolinger’s infield out into the game’s first run in the second inning, but that was all it could manage despite collecting nine hits.

Track and field

Washington State junior Joe Abbott ran 1 minute, 48.80 seconds in his 800-meter heat, the fifth-best time overall, to advance to today’s finals in the NCAA Division I indoor championships in College Station, Texas.

Cougars sophomore Holly Parent cleared 5 feet, 8 3/4 inches to finish 15th in the women’s high jump.

• Emmanuel Bofa, a graduate student at Whitworth, set a stadium record of 1:52.87 in winning his heat in the 800 to advance to today’s finals in the NCAA Division III championships in Columbus, Ohio.

Pirates junior Tonya Turner (Mead) was fourth in her heat of the women’s mile with a season-best 5:00.35 to advance.

Softball

Regin Gallagher (Mead) and Rachel Antonovich hit back-to-back home runs for Community Colleges of Spokane in their first collegiate at-bats, but the Sasquatch dropped a 6-5 decision to Scottsdale in nine innings in Phoenix in their season opener.

CCS managed just two hits in a 9-1 loss to Chandler in the second game of a five-game weekend trip.