NW Briefs | Huskies baseball falls to Duke, 4-3

GREENVILLE, N.C. — Duke scored a run in the bottom of the ninth in controversial fashion Friday, leading the Blue Devils to a 4-3 win over the Washington baseball team at the ECU Invitational.

With one out and Duke shortstop Gabriel Saade at second base in the ninth, Ryan McCurdy grounded to second base. However, Saade, who was off on the pitch, tried to score on the play. Huskies first baseman Curt Rindal's throw beat the runner home, and catcher Joey Dunn put a tag on Saade before he reached the plate. But plate umpire David Mabe ruled that Dunn had obstructed the runner and called Saade safe, ending the game.

Sophomore Jason Erickson (0-1) took the loss for the Huskies (0-4), allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits over 2-2/3 innings. Starter Nick Hagadone pitched six innings, surrendering two runs (one earned) on four hits.

Other baseball

Chais Fuller drove in a pair of runs and Randy Boone escaped a two-on, no-out jam in the ninth as No. 13 Texas defeated Washington State (2-2) 4-2 in the first of a three-game series in Austin.

• Gonzaga's ninth-inning rally fell short in a 4-3 loss to Texas-San Antonio on the second day of the Southwest Baseball Classic in Frisco, Texas.

• Pacific Lutheran improved to 2-0 in the Yamhill County Spring Classic by routing Concordia of Portland 11-1 in McMinnville, Ore. The Lutes, who earlier in the day rallied for an 18-16 win over University of British Columbia in Newberg, Ore., improved to 6-3.

• Beau Mills went 4 for 5 with two runs batted in and three runs scored to lift Lewis-Clark State past Western Oregon 11-4, then hit three doubles to drive in five runs, all in the first four innings, in the Warriors' 12-0 pasting of St. Martin's at the Guardian Plumbing, Heating & A/C Tournament in Lewiston, Idaho.

Men's tennis

Alex Slovic moved into third place in Washington history for combined doubles and singles wins as the No. 15 Huskies (8-1) defeated No. 75 Oregon 7-0 in a nonconference match at Nordstrom Tennis Center.

Slovic and Daniel Chu won their No. 1 doubles match 8-3. Slovic then defeated Marcos Verdasco 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 for his 86th career singles win, tying him with Eric Drew for fifth all-time on the UW career list. His victory gave him 160 combined wins in his career.

Women's tennis

Linfield won its 66th straight Northwest Conference match, taking down Puget Sound (3-1, 2-1) 7-2 in Tacoma.

• Whitman (4-2, 3-2 NWC) rolled over George Fox 9-0 in Walla Walla.

Track and field

Sarah Hegna and David Paul earned all-conference honors as Eastern Washington finished the first day of the Big Sky Conference Indoors in Bozeman, Mont.

Hegna finished second in the pole vault with a jump of 12 feet, 9 inches. Paul was third in the shot put with a personal best of 56-7 ½, fourth all-time at Eastern.

Notes

• The Storm re-signed 5-foot-10 guard Shaunzinski Gortman to a training-camp contract. Terms of the deals were not disclosed. She appeared in 20 games for the Storm during the 2006 season, averaging 2.8 points and 2.4 rebounds before a torn ACL ended her season.

• Seattle-based Team Larway (Jason Larway, Colin Hufman, Joel Larway and Steven Demlow) fell 10-4 to Team Birr of Minnesota, taking home the bronze medal from the 2007 U.S. National Curling Championships in Whitesboro, N.Y.

• The United States men's rowing team, which includes former University of Washington rowers Sam Burns, Scott Gault and Brett Newlin, will hold a nine-day preseason training camp on Lake Washington, starting today.

Also training here will be Bryan Volpenhein, on the 2004 gold-medal eight, who now lives year round in Seattle; as well as national team members Steven Coppola, Josh Inman, Chris Liwski, Marcus McElhenney, Dan Walsh, Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss.

Compiled from sports-information reports and other sources.