Pirates head to Texas for softball regional

The 18th-ranked Whitworth Pirates will travel to play in the Marshall, Texas, regional on Friday as the NCAA Division III softball tournament begins.

East Texas Baptist (35-7) and top-seeded University of Texas-Dallas (36-8) are the other two schools in the Pirates’ regional.

Whitworth (35-9) advanced to the tournament for the second year in a row and third time overall.

As the third seed, the Pirates will play UT-Dallas in the opener and then play East Texas Baptist later in the day.

The winner of the Marshall Regional will play the winner of the Tyler (Texas) Regional on May 19-20 in a Super Regional.

Women’s golf

Gonzaga’s Bianca Pagdanganan kept herself in the medalist hunt after opening with a 1-over-par 73 during the first round of the NCAA Regional Championship at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque on Monday.

Pagdanganan sits four strokes off the pace set by North Carolina State’s Laura Kowohi. Pepperdine’s Tatiana Wijaya is second at 70, while Stanford’s Albane Valenzuela is third at 71.

Men’s golf

Logan Skalka finished fourth with a two-round total of 5-over-par 149 as the Community Colleges of Spokane Sasquatch placed third in a four-team Northwest Athletic Conference match in Burlington, Washington.

Fraser Valley won the team title with a 25-over 601 total, 10 shots clear of runner-up SW Oregon. CC Spokane finished one shot behind SW Oregon. Skagit Valley was fourth at 627. Halen Davis of Fraser Valley was the medalist with a 1-under 143.