NW Briefs | UW baseball falls 8-6 despite hitting four home runs

STANFORD, Calif. — Despite two home runs each by Ty Rasmussen and Trevor Petersen, the Washington baseball team lost 8-6 as the Cardinal broke a 3-3 tie with five runs in the eighth Saturday at Sunken Diamond.

The Cardinal win evened the three-game weekend series that concludes today at 1 p.m.

The Huskies, in fourth place in the Pac-10 standings, fell to 26-22 overall and 9-8 in conference play. Stanford improved to 20-27 overall and 5-15 in the league.

Rasmussen, a redshirt freshman from Enumclaw, hit a pair of solo homers for the UW, increasing his season total to nine. Petersen, a sophomore from Tukwila, hit a solo homer and a two-run shot, his first two of the year.

STANFORD 8, WASHINGTON 6

Washington (26-22)	000 201 003 — 6 13 0
Stanford (20-27)	001 200 05x — 8 16 0

Cribby, Cheney (5), Haughian (8), McKerney (8) and Dunn. Bleich, Gallagher (8), Hancock (9), Yount (9) and Milleville, Juhl (9). W — Gallagher (4-6). L — Haughian (4-7). Sv — Yount (1). HR — UW, Trevor Petersen 2 (2), Ty Rasmussen 2 (9). T — 3:07. A — 1,545.

More baseball

Mike Lissman's three-run home run highlighted a five-run seventh inning as No. 15 Oregon State beat Washington State 11-5 in a Pacific-10 Conference game in Corvallis.

Clinging to a two-run lead in the seventh, the Beavers (36-12, 8-9 Pac-10) broke the game open. The five runs came off a Cougars bullpen that had allowed just one run over the previous 13-1/3 innings.

Paul Gran and Simi Reynolds each had three hits for Washington State (24-22, 7-13).

• Gonzaga secured a spot in the West Coast Conference Championship with a 7-1 victory over No. 17 Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif.

The Zags (32-21, 15-5 WCC) will play No. 6 University of San Diego in a best-of-three series in San Diego on May 25-27. The winner of the conference championship will earn the WCC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Clayton Mortensen (8-2) earned the win Saturday, posting 15 strikeouts in his fifth complete game of the season.

• Central Washington (27-21, 10-14 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) split a doubleheader with Northwest Nazarene, ending its season in Nampa, Idaho. Central won the opener 10-9 and lost the second game 7-6. Geno Olson and Nate Rylaarsdam homered in the opener for Central, which finished in a three-way tie for second in the conference.

Softball

The No. 3 Arizona softball team came back from a three-run deficit to defeat No. 11 Washington 5-4 in its Pac-10 finale.

The Huskies (35-16) finished in third place with a 12-9 record, marking its highest conference finish since 2002 (13-8, third). The Wildcats (39-12-1, 15-5-1) are Pac-10 champions and have an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.

Washington took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning on a two-run home run by junior Lauren Greer. It was Greer's fifth homer this season and her fourth in Pac-10 play.

Washington added two runs in the sixth inning on sophomore Danielle Lawrie's solo home run and Greer's double to take a 4-1 lead.

Arizona tied the score with three runs in the bottom of the sixth and won in the bottom of the eighth when Sam Banister hit a home run to left field.

Lawrie (24-10) took the loss in relief, allowing one run in 1-2/3 innings.

The Huskies will learn their postseason fate today when the NCAA announces the 64-team tournament field on ESPNews between noon and 1 p.m. The 16 regional sites will be announced at that time. UW has made 13 appearances in the NCAA tournament in the last 14 years.

• Katie Petersen and Heather Hansen helped Seattle University stay alive in the NCAA Division II West Regional with a 3-2 win over Sonoma State in nine innings in Turlock, Calif.

With Seattle down 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Petersen legged out an infield single to lead off the inning and later scored on Hansen's single.

Petersen, who was 4 for 4, led off the ninth inning with a single to left-center and scored the winning run on another hit by Hansen, who went 3 for 5. Seattle (33-22) advanced to play Humboldt State in another elimination game and was leading 3-2 through three innings when the game was called by darkness.

Football

Western Washington linebacker Caleb Jessup had 10 tackles, eight of them solo stops, helping the defense claim a 60-27 victory over the offense as spring practice concluded with the annual Blue-Silver Game at Civic Stadium in Bellingham.

Rowing

The Western Washington women had a dominating performance, easily winning both the varsity eight and varsity four events, as they captured a fourth straight NCAA Division II West Regional title on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif. The races were held in conjunction with the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships.

The Vikings, ranked No.1 nationally in the USRowing/Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Poll, earned an automatic berth to nationals, where they are the two-time defending champions. The Division II national championships are May 25-27 in Knoxville, Tenn.

It was Western's fourth consecutive regional victory in the varsity eight and fifth in the last six years, and it was the third straight title for the varsity four.

The Vikings' varsity eight won by nearly 2 boat lengths, completing the 2,000-meter course in 7 minutes, 10.9 seconds. They were followed by UC San Diego (7:19.6), Seattle Pacific (7:33.8) and Humboldt State (7:41.1).

Western's varsity four was victorious by over two boat lengths with a winning time of 8:23.1. UC San Diego was second in 8:31.3 and Humboldt State third in 8:49.1.

Women's basketball

Kate Werner has joined the staff of Washington State coach June Daugherty. Werner will serve as director of basketball operations. The 1995 graduate of Pullman High was a member of Daugherty's staff at Washington from 2003 to 2007.

Golf

Washington State freshman Diana Hong fired a final-round 72 at the NCAA West Regional to finish tied for 19th and the Cougars finished 11th in the 21-team field, missing a berth in the national championships by six strokes.

WSU sophomore Amy Eneroth closed with her best round, a 74, after consecutive scores of 76. She tied for 23rd on the par-71, 6,234-yard Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club in St. George, Utah.

Oklahoma State and Stanford tied for the title with scores of 874.

Compiled from college sports-information reports.