Area roundup: Hugh Smith’s pitching sparks Whitworth in Northwest Conference baseball opener.

Hugh Smith threw six innings of two-hit ball Saturday and Whitworth opened Northwest Conference baseball play with a 7-3 win over Willamette (7-8, 3-4) in Salem, Oregon.

The second game was suspended by darkness in the top of the ninth with the teams tied at 3. It will be made up Sunday before the teams’ regularly scheduled game.

Smith (2-0), who struck out six and walked four, exited with a 3-0 lead. Ben Wintringer and Taylor Poffenroth had RBI singles during the Pirates’ three-run second.

Whitworth (6-6 overall) boosted the lead to 6-0 with a three-run eighth. Casey Isa singled in the first run, and he and Cael McKeirnan scored on a fielding error.

Whitworth’s Tyler Bailey finished 3 for 5 with two runs.

• Community Colleges of Spokane improved to 4-0 with a 12-2, 7-5 nonconference sweep of Clackamas in Oregon City, Oregon.

Softball

Madelyn Carlson pitched a five-hitter and Whitworth (6-6) defeated Wittenburg 1-0 to complete a 2-0 day at the Leadoff Classic in Tucson, Arizona.

Kaylie Lowery’s RBI single in the eighth gave the Pirates a 7-6 win over Birmingham Southern to open the day.

Logan Miller’s sacrifice fly in the fourth gave Carlson the offense she needed in the second game. In the opener, Miller’s two-run double ignited a six-run fourth.

• North Idaho boosted its record to 7-1 by defeating Delta College 11-3 and Ancilla College 23-0 at The Spring Games in Clermont, Florida.

Track and field

Whitworth’s men and women swept the Ed Boitano Invitational in Tacoma, picking up 13 individual wins in their first outdoor event of the season.

Whitworth’s Kayla Brase won the women’s triple jump at 37 feet, 4 1/2 inches and the long jump at 16-9 3/4.

The Pirates’ Jacob Sturtevant won the 100-meter dash in 11.51 seconds and the 200 in 22.50.

Whitworth’s men scored 203 points for a large gap on runner-up Western Washington (134.5). The Pirates women piled up 180 points while second-place Western scored 134.

Women’s basketball

Eastern Washington’s Delaney Hodgins was named Big Sky Conference Player of the Week for the third time this season after she scored a conference-record 46 points against Northern Arizona on Friday.

Hodgins averaged 41.5 points in two games during the week, shooting 31 of 45 from the field, including 12 of 16 on 3-pointers.

Hodgins has 2,105 career points to rank third on the conference’s all-time list behind Idaho State’s Natalie Doma (2,296) and Montana’s Shannon Cate (2,172).

Hodgins and the Eagles will open the Big Sky Tournament play on Wednesday in Reno, Nevada.