Area roundup: Gonzaga takes Dons deep four times in 14-3 victory
Gonzaga banged out 20 hits, including a pair of two-run homers from Troy Johnston and two-run shots by Nick Nyquist and Mason Marenco, on Saturday night as the Bulldogs routed San Francisco 14-3 in a West Coast Conference game at Patterson Baseball Complex.
It was Johnston’s second consecutive game with two home runs and five RBIs, on the heels of Friday night’s 15-8 victory. Nyquist has nine homers this season; it was Marenco’s first career home run. The Zags (22-17, 14-6 WCC) had five straight hits to start the first inning, totaled six runs and never looked back.
The Dons (24-19, 12-8) try to avert a three-game sweep Sunday at noon.
Whitman 5, Whitworth 3: The Blues scored all of their runs in the final three innings and held off the Pirates’ ninth-inning rally to win a Northwest Conference Tournament game at Merkel Field.
Whitworth (23-13) faced Pacific, a 14-3 winner over Pacific Lutheran earlier in the day, in a loser-out game. The Pirates led 6-3 entering the eighth inning when the game was suspended on account of darkness.
The teams resume play Sunday morning at 9:30, with the winner facing the Blues (22-16) at noon. The winner will have to defeat Whitman twice to advance to the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament.
Oregon State 4, Washington State 3 (16): The Cougars battled the nation’s No. 2 team for more than 5 hours in Corvallis, Oregon, but fell in the bottom of the 16th inning on Jake Harvey’s RBI single that scored Preston Jones.
Danny Sinatro, Andres Alvarez, Jack Smith and Tyson Guerrero had two hits apiece for Washington State (8-30-1, 1-15-1 Pac-12), which received eight innings of shutout relief, highlighted by Guerrero’s 6 2/3-inning, three-hit, six-strikeout stint. The Beavers (30-10-1, 16-4) attempt to sweep the three-game series Sunday at 1:05 p.m.
Women’s tennis
Pepperdine 4, Gonzaga 1: The Zags came up short against one of the nation’s best teams, sixth-ranked Pepperdine, in the final of the West Coast Conference championships in Claremont, California.
Gonzaga (12-10) received a No. 1 singles win from Sophie Whittle, but fell to the Waves (21-3).
Northern Arizona 4, Idaho 0: The Vandals’ four-year reign as conference champions ended in Phoenix with a loss to the Lumberjacks in the Big Sky championships.
Men’s golf
Bulldogs finish eighth: Chris Mogg’s 4-under-par 212 was good for third place overall, but Gonzaga finished eighth at the WCC Championships in Stockton, California.