A Grip on Sports: There were wins to celebrate and losses to console Saturday, which made it another typical day in sports

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Let’s get right to it, shall we?

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• What are the headlines?

Seattle rejoices may be one. Or two. The past 48 hours brings us back to the start. The drought continues. A career ends.

Eye-catching? Maybe not. But interesting.

The Mariners’ recent surge may not have their city (and region) rejoicing, but it certainly has engendered a sigh of relief. As did Bryan Woo’s start last night.

It was the righthanders best – seven shutout innings, just two hits – since last year’s late-season arm problems. And helped the M’s to a 5-1 win over Arizona and kept them atop the A.L. West.

But the real rejoicing for those of a certain age came a bit earlier Saturday night. Oklahoma City will not be earning a hard-to-swallow second NBA title in two years. The Thunder couldn’t handle Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs at home in Game Seven of the Western Conference finals.

San Antonio’s 111-103 victory may not have moved the needle in a lot of places – after all, the Finals against the Knicks begin Wednesday – but it certainly resonated among the Never Thunder, Always Sonics fans in the Northwest.

There has to be a cross section of them who also root for Washington State sports, right? That group needed the boost after their Cougars couldn’t find a way to score against Oregon in the Ducks-hosted NCAA baseball regional. The 4-0, winners’ bracket loss put WSU back where it started. Facing a key game against Oregon State today. The 1 p.m. game is available on ESPN+. The winner will have to top the Ducks twice to move on to the Super Regional.

You know what hasn’t been super? The Greater Spokane League’s performance in baseball over the years. After all, winning a State title has not just been difficult for the larger schools in our area since 1973 (when the state began holding a tournament), it’s been impossible.

That Gonzaga Prep wasn’t able to change that history yesterday didn’t tarnish the Bullpups’ best season in recent memory – they finished 23-5 after the 7-0 loss to Sumner. It just didn’t allow for any screams of joy.

Something we’re sure Mead High thrower extraordinaire Simon Rosselli let out at some point over his two-title-winning weekend in Tacoma.

Or maybe not. See, Rosselli is not only the best discus thrower of his age in America right now, he is also driven to become the best in the world at some point. And he wasn’t satisfied with just winning the State 4A title yesterday at Mount Tahoma High, he wanted to reach his potential. That, in his eyes, didn’t happen. But due to his and his teammates’ efforts, the Panthers won another track and field team title, their 10th.

All of which earned headlines.

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WSU: We linked Greg Woods’ game story above. And do so again here. … The Cougs’ Rosemary Longisa won the 1,500-meter race at the NCAA West Regional on Saturday. … John Canzano also has a column from Eugene on the Cougs’ loss. … There is also coverage from an Oregon perspective. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Oregon State did what it had to do to get another shot at the Cougars. The Beavers eliminated Yale. … Top overall seed UCLA had to rally in the bottom of the ninth to avoid an ignominious end to a spectacular season. The Bruins did and get Saint Mary’s again. … USC’s bats came alive to keep the Trojans’ season alive. … Arizona State plays today as well after winning Saturday. … Jon Wilner has his weekly mailbag in the Mercury News, with the usual emphasis on football. … Colorado’s old athletic director is enjoying himself. … USC’s current athletic director doesn’t think the Trojans will have money issues.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Northern Arizona is happy to have a game on ESPN2 this fall. … Southern Utah is happy to have six home games.

Preps: We linked Dave Nichols’ coverage of the baseball games above. And do so again here. … The State track and field championships finished Saturday. Greg Lee was at Mount Tahoma High in Tacoma for the large school meets and has this story on the 4A, 3A and 2A boys and this one on the girls. … We can also pass along this roundup from the smaller schools from Yakima, where Lakeside’s boys won the 1A title and Freeman’s earned the top 2B trophy. … The link we had in the Rosselli section above? That was to Dave Boling’s exceptional column. No one understands the throwing events in track and field better than Dave. 

Indians: Spokane’s bat were hot in Pasco on Saturday, lifting the Indians to a 9-1 win over the host Dust Devils.

Velocity: It’s been a while but Spokane finally lost a league match again. The Velocity fell 2-1 in Portland, Maine.

Mariners: We linked the game story above. And do it again here. … The M’s two star minor league pitchers are, well, starring.

Seahawks: It looks as if the Vikings are hiring away one of the Hawks’ front-office folks. … We linked this Times story about Lumen Field a while ago. It is in the S-R today. Same for this story on Byron Murphy II.

Reign: A late goal against the Washington Spirit spelled defeat for Seattle on the road.

Storm: Speaking of road woes, the Storm lost their third consecutive game away from home.

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• Not going to guarantee we’ll be here Monday. But as we said yesterday, we will try. It will depend on Alaska Air’s wi-fi. Until later …