Northwestern, Arizona march to softball finals
Oklahoma City – Tammy Williams and Garland Cooper hit back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning as Northwestern beat top-seeded UCLA 3-1 on Sunday, knocking the Bruins out of the Women’s College World Series.
In a best-of-three championship series beginning today, fourth-seeded Northwestern (50-13) will face second-seeded Arizona, a 6-0 winner over eighth-seeded Tennessee on Sunday night. Arizona (52-11) lost 1-0 to Tennessee earlier Sunday.
Northwestern’s win came after UCLA’s Kristen Dedmon provided late-inning dramatics for the Bruins. Dedmon, who drove in the winning runs with a pinch-hit single in the 2004 championship game, again came off the bench to force extra innings with a two-out, RBI single in the bottom of the seventh.
Williams and Cooper responded with consecutive home runs off Anjelica Selden (35-7) to put Northwestern in position to play for the NCAA title for the first time in school history.
Eileen Canney (26-7) struck out six in a six-hitter, and Jamie Dotson added a home run off Selden in the second inning for Northwestern, which is playing in its first Women’s College World Series since 1986.
COLLEGE BASEBALL
North Carolina State eliminates defending champion Longhorns
Jonathan Diaz had an RBI double and Matt Camp doubled in the eighth inning to help North Carolina State eliminate defending national champion Texas 6-3 in the Austin Regional.
Hunter Harris tied things up for the Longhorns (41-21) in the seventh with an RBI double. But Texas reliever Randy Boone couldn’t hold off North Carolina State during its three-run eighth inning.
In the Charlottesville Regional, Kasey Wahl went 4-for-6 with five RBIs and Evansville eliminated top-seeded Virginia 15-4 in Charlottesville, Va.
Raymond “Smoke” Laval resigned as coach of the LSU baseball team after five seasons and two trips to the College World Series.
WNBA
Comets streak to fifth straight victory, rout Lynx behind Snow’s 24 points
Michelle Snow scored a career-high 24 points to lead the Houston Comets to their fifth straight victory, 85-62 over the visiting Minnesota Lynx.
Snow, who added nine rebounds, just missed her first double-double of the season as the Comets (5-1) won their third straight at home to remain on top of the Western Conference standings.
Rookie sensation Seimone Augustus had 20 points for the Lynx (2-4), who saw their modest two-game winning streak come to an end.
Houston’s Sheryl Swoopes left the game with 6:36 left because of a back injury. She finished with 13 points.
Katie Smith scored 21 points and Deanna Nolan added 13 to help the Detroit Shock to an 81-66 victory over the host Chicago Sky.
One night after losing 92-68 at Washington, the Shock responded to send the Sky (1-5) to its fourth home loss and fifth straight loss overall.
Former Detroit Pistons star Bill Laimbeer made his coaching debut in Chicago.
FOOTNOTES
Hamilton-led Predators rip Dallas, gain record seventh ArenaBowl berth
Joe Hamilton threw four touchdown passes, including two to Javarus Dudley, to help the Orlando Predators beat the host Dallas Desperados 45-28 and clinch their record seventh berth in the ArenaBowl.
Orlando will play Chicago on Sunday in Las Vegas. The Rush advanced to the title game with a 59-56 win over the San Jose SaberCats on Saturday.
U.S. rider David Zabriskie won the opening prologue at the Dauphine Libere in Annecy, France, beating 2005 prologue winner George Hincapie in this Tour de France warm-up.
Zabriskie, who defeated Lance Armstrong in last year’s opening time trial at the Tour, edged Hincapie by almost two seconds over the 2.54 miles. Zabriskie of Team CSC won in 4 minutes, 35.84 seconds. Stuart O’Grady of Australia finished third.
In the NFL, Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry was charged with speeding and drunken driving in Mount Carmel, Ohio., his third scrape with the law since December.
Henry registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.092 percent on a breath test and was clocked at 82 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone, said Sgt. Craig Cvetan, a State Highway Patrol spokesman. The legal limit is 0.08.
Mike McClelland of Bella Vista, Ark., completed a wire-to-wire win in the Bassmaster Elite Series’ Sooner Run on Grand Lake in Grove, Okla.
The 38-year-old McClelland caught 14 pounds, 8 ounces on Sunday, increasing his four-day total to 79 pounds, 7 ounces. He won $100,000, boosting his BASS career earnings to almost $500,000.
