NW Briefs: Huskies golfers advance to NCAA

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Washington men's golf team turned in the third-best round in school history Saturday, shooting a 17-under-par 271 to qualify for the NCAA championships.

The UW's round, on the third and final day of the NCAA West Regional, was the best by any team in any round of the tournament. It catapulted the Huskies from ninth place to third. The top 10 teams advanced to the NCAA championships in Sunriver, Ore., beginning May 31.

The Huskies' 54-hole total of 24-under 840 was a season best and trailed only Florida and Arizona (both at 37-under 827).

Washington's Zach Bixler shot a season-best 5-under 67 to finish third in the 141-man field at a career-best 12-under 204. The sophomore's round included seven birdies and two bogeys.

Teammate Alex Prugh shot a bogey-free 6-under 66 that included four birdies and an eagle. Prugh finished 32nd at 4-under 212. James Lepp fired a 3-under 69 to place 18th at 7-under 209, a season best. Erik Olson also shot 69 and placed 57th at 1-under 215. Sterling Clark's 1-under 71 placed him 99th at 7-over 223.

Florida's Billy Horschel (66-203) was the medalist.

Baseball

At Pacific 7, Washington 2

Tigers first baseman Justin Baum drove in four runs to even the three-game series in Stockton, Calif.

Starter Joey Centanni (5-4) allowed just one unearned run on three hits over seven innings for Pacific (27-23).

Baum hit a two-run homer in the first inning to tie the school record for career homers (28). He also had two sacrifice flies as Pacific built a 7-0 lead after six innings.

In the seventh, Brett Kaluza singled and eventually scored on an error for the Huskies (34-24). Cory Rickard homered in the ninth.

Washington starter Tyler Cheney (1-6) allowed five earned runs on five hits over 4-2/3 innings.

Line score

PACIFIC 7, WASHINGTON 2

Washington	000 000 101 — 2 5 1
Pacific	201 121 00x — 7 10 3

Cheney, McKerney (5), Mooney (6), Kasser (7), Hagadone (8) and Lane. Centanni, Wild (8) and Oliveira. WP — Centanni (5-4). LP — Cheney (1-6). HR — UW, Rickard (1); UOP, Baum (11). T — 2:21. A — 244

Oregon State 10, at Washington State 2

Jonah Nickerson (9-3) scattered five hits in a complete-game victory while Mitch Canham drove in four runs as the Pac-10-leading Beavers won their second straight game in the series at Bailey-Brayton Field.

Oregon State (37-13, 14-6) grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first inning, taking advantage of three walks by Cougars starter Wayne Daman Jr. (6-4).

In the second, Jared Prince led off with a home run to center field for WSU (34-20, 9-11). It marked the second straight game Prince has homered in his first at-bat.

Travis Coulter led off the third with a single to extend his hitting streak to 19 games, the longest by a Cougar this season. Prince drove Coulter in with a sacrifice fly.

Line score

Oregon State	301 400 020 — 10 11 2
Washington State	011 000 000 — 2 5 1

Daman Jr., Miller (4), Williamson (7), Cebula (9) and Lagreid. Nickerson and Canham. WP — Nickerson (9-3). LP — Daman Jr. (6-4). Sv — None. HRs — WSU: Prince.

Tennis

The Washington men's postseason run came to an end as the 21st-ranked Huskies fell to fourth-ranked and fifth-seeded Baylor 4-1 in the round of 16 at the NCAA championships in Stanford, Calif.

The Huskies, who made their fifth Sweet 16 appearance in the past six years, end the season at 20-6. Baylor (24-6) advanced to face No. 13 Stanford.

Senior Pierre Metenier provided the Huskies' only point with his 6-1, 6-3 win in No. 2 singles.

In No. 1 singles, Baylor's Lars Poerschke beat Alex Slovic 7-6, 6-3. Slovic will remain in Stanford to compete in the NCAA singles championships this week.

• Whitman's Steven Ly, the Northwest Conference Player of the Year, lost 6-0, 6-4 to Scott Mackenzie of Williams College in the opening round of the NCAA Division III singles championships in Fredericksburg, Va.

Rowing

Eight Seattle-area crews survived the semifinals of the spring's third U.S. National Selection Regatta on Lake Mercer near Princeton, N.J., propelling the rowers to today's finals of the national qualifier that will help choose the 2006 U.S. national team.

Seven local crews qualified the conventional way by finishing among the top three in their semifinals. The eighth, the women's double-sculls entry of Pocock Rowing Center's Britton Nixon and Vesper Boat Club's Samantha Twardowski, qualified despite hitting a goose in the final 15 strokes of their race.

Nixon and Twardowski were fourth in the race but their protest for interference was granted by the referees, who awarded them lane seven in the final. The goose survived.

Lia Pernell of Pocock and Anne Browning of Tacoma guided their crews to first-place finishes in their semifinals. Pernell and partner Liane Malcos won the second semifinal in 7:17.14, the fastest time of the women's doubles sculls. Browning and Caryn Davies won the first semifinal in 7:17.39.

In men's pair, three former Huskies — Brett Newlin, Giuseppe Lanzone and Sam Burns — qualified for today's final. Newlin, a 2005 UW graduate, and partner Josh Inman along with UW's Lanzone and Mathew Schnobrich finished first and second in the first semifinal. Newlin and Inman clocked a 6:44.43, while Lanzone and Schnobrich had a 6:51.93. Burns and partner Dan Beery finished second in the second semifinal in 6:50.07.

In the men's double sculls, former Huskies rower Jonathan Burns and partner Shane O'Mara finished second in 6:34.21. Pocock's Joshua Brown and partner Deaglan McEachern finished third in 6:35.67.

Compiled from sports-information reports and other sources.