NW Briefs | Aaron Russell's grand slam lifts UW baseball

Third baseman Aaron Russell hit two line-drive home runs, including a grand slam in the seventh inning that gave the Huskies their first lead of the day, and the Washington baseball team came back from a 5-0 deficit to beat UC Irvine, 13-12, Wednesday at Husky Ballpark.

Russell, a junior from Interlake High School, notched his first two homers of the season in the win and finished the day with six RBI.

Huskies right fielder Kyle Conley hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs.

Freshman reliever Seth Haehl (1-0) picked up the victory.

The Huskies (9-12) open Pac-10 play with a three-game series at Stanford this weekend.

Cougars open spring practice

The Washington State University football team holds its first spring practice this afternoon in Pullman. Coach Paul Wulff enters his second season on the Cougars sideline.

Quarterbacks Kevin Lopina, J.T. Levenseller and Dan Wagner are cleared for practice but Marshall Lobbestael will only take part in individual drills and some 7-on-7 sessions. Lobbestael had knee surgery last year.

Wulff said the team will work on more use of the no-huddle offense.

The Cougars will hold three Saturday scrimmages in April.

Elsewhere

• The UW women's golf team placed fourth at the BYU Dixie Classic at St. George, Utah. Sophomore Anya Alvarez ended at 11-over 227 to finish in a tie for 11th place.

• The Western Washington varsity eight rowing team is ranked No. 1 in the Division II poll, receiving all six first-place votes.

• Pacific Lutheran (8-14) dropped a nonconference softball doubleheader at Cal Lutheran on Wednesday by 3-2 and 4-1 scores.

• Central Washington (13-8, 11-5 in GNAC) rattled the bats for 27 runs and 29 hits on its way to a 14-3, 13-4 softball sweep of Northwest Nazarene in Nampa, Idaho.

• The Seattle University softball team was swept in identical 8-0 run-rule shortened games against Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore.

• The UW women's tennis team swept Hawaii, 7-0, in the second of three matches the Huskies (11-5) are playing on the island of Oahu. Sophomore Venise Chan dominated UH's top player, Sophie Kobuch, 6-0, 6-0 and is now 20-5 in singles play, reaching the 20-win mark for the second time.

• In the heptathlon, Seattle Pacific freshman Ali Worthen is in second place at the UC Davis Multi track meet in Davis, Calif. With the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200 meters in the book, Worthen has piled up 2,944 points, just 24 points behind the leader heading into today's final three events.

Compiled from sports-information reports