Cal captures softball regional

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, May 19, 2003 | by STAFF

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Another year, another trip to the Women's College World Series for the Cal softball team.

The defending national champion Bears will make their fifth straight WCWS appearance and eighth overall after defeating Michigan 1-0 on Sunday in the championship game of the NCAA Region 7 tournament.

Cal (45-18), which extended its scoreless innings in the postseason to 47, will face Pac-10 rival UCLA (49-6) in the first round Thursday in Oklahoma City.

The Bears have not beaten UCLA this season, losing twice in Berkeley (3-0 and 4-1) and once in Los Angeles (10-0).

Cal scored in the second inning Sunday on a sacrifice fly by Chelsea Spencer. Veronica Nelson drew a leadoff walk and went to third on Haley Woods' double to set up Spencer.

Michigan (44-16) nearly tied it in the bottom of the fourth when Melinda Moulden tried to score on a double by Marissa Young, but Moulden was thrown out at the plate.

Kelly Anderson pitched seven innings, allowing five hits and striking out six. She was named MVP of the tournament, while Kaleo Eldredge, Vicky Galindo, Courtney Scott, Spencer, Nelson and Haley joined her on the All-Region team.

Baseball

Donny Lucy's solo homer in the bottom of the 10th inning lifted No.7 Stanford to a 9-8 win over UCLA at Sunken Diamond, giving the Cardinal (38-15, 18-6) its first Pac-10 regular-season championship in three years.

Stanford last won the title outright in 1999, and the Cardinal shared the title with Arizona State and UCLA in 2000.

In other games:

Scott Niheu's bloop single in the eighth inning scored Nathan Gorrick with the go-ahead run as San Jose State (24-30, 9-17 WAC) rallied from a six-run deficit to post an 8-6 upset win over No.2 Rice (46-9, 23-4) at Blethen Field.

Jack Headley went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, and David Mandley and Will Thompson hit back-to-back solo home runs as Santa Clara (31-26, 21-9 WCC) swept past St. Mary's 8-3 at Buck Shaw Stadium in the season finale for both teams.

Jeff Cunningham went 2-for-4 with two RBIs to lead the Gaels (18- 37-1, 8-21-1).

Sacramento State held off a late USF rally in the eighth inning, which included an RBI double by Ryan Sittauer and an RBI single by Ryan Hanson, to post a 5-4 non-conference win at Hornet Field in the season finale for the Dons (25-31).

Tennis

Florida finally won the NCAA women's tennis title on its home court, beating two-time defending champion Stanford 4-3 in Gainesville, Fla.

After an 84-minute lightning delay, the second-seeded Gators (31- 2) beat the top-seeded Cardinal (25-2) when Lauren Barnikow hit a forehand into the net on match point to give Julie Rotondi a 6-0, 7- 5 win at No.2 singles.

Florida had hosted the NCAA championships four times before and never won.

In the men's team tournament in Athens, Ga., No.4 Stanford (25-3) advanced to the semifinals with a 4-0 win over No.7 Cal (21-5).

The Cardinal will meet top-ranked Illinois (29-0) today at 1 p.m.