Beavers, Ducks, Pilots lose in baseball; UO, OSU win in softball

Published 12:00 am Sunday, March 6, 2022

SUNDAY, MARCH 6

College baseball — For the first time this season, Oregon State, Oregon and Portland all lost on the same day.

Oregon State (9-1) suffered its first loss of the season, falling 3-2 in 10 innings to UC Irvine. Jacob Melton and Brady Kasper hit solo home runs for the Beavers, but Irvine’s Thomas McCaffrey homered in the 10th. … UC Santa Barbara beat Oregon for the second day in a row, 7-5 at PK Park. … Fresno State beat visiting Portland 7-1, a three-run homer in the fourth inning building a 5-1 lead. The Pilots outhit the Bulldogs 11-10 but scored only a first-inning run.

College softball — Allie Bunker, KK Humphreys and Gabby Herrera hit home runs as No. 12 Oregon beat Connecticut 9-2 at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. … Oregon State won its 14th in a row, a 3-1 win over North Dakota State at Riverside, California. Tarni Stepto allowed only an RBI double in the first inning and struck out nine.

Pac-12 wrestling — Trey Munoz won the 184-pound Pac-12 title with a pair of pins and Oregon State finished second in the team standings, one point behind host Arizona State.

A total of eight Beavers qualified for the NCAA Wrestling Championships that happen March 18-20.

College women’s basketball — Beaverton native Cameron Brink scored 16 point to help Stanford to its second consecutive Pac-12 Tournament title with a 73-48 win over Utah. The Cardinal, led by Haley Jones, outscored the Utes 41-18 in the second half.

Kraken lose at Carolina — Martin Necas scored midway through the third period to lift the host Hurricanes to a 3-2 win. former Portland Winterhawk Nino Niederreiter scored a first-period power-play goal for Carolina, his 17th of the season. Aex Wenberg and Calle Jarnkrok scored for Seattle.

SATURDAY, MARCH 5

Scoreless draw for Thorns — In the first game of the preseason tournament at Providence Park, the Portland Thorns and OL Reign played to a scoreless draw. Portland goalkeeper Bella Bixby made a couple of key saves. Seventeen players saw the field for the Thorns. Next for Portland is a 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 8 match against the U.S. Under-23 National Team.

Washington State men 94, Oregon 74 — Without Will Richardson, the Ducks cemented their need to win the Pac 12 tournament to find a way into the NCAA tournament with the big loss to the Cougars. Jacob Young tried his best with 21 points to lead Oregon.

Oregon finishes the regular season 18-13 overall and 11-9 in the Pac 12. The Ducks will be the No. 5 seed in the Pac 12 tournament next week and play No. 12 Oregon State.

Washington men 78, Oregon State 67 — One final regular season loss for the Beavers as the Huskies went into the break up 38-24 and were actually scored by OSU 43-40 in the second half. Dashawn Davis’ 17 points weren’t enough for a comeback as OSU finishes the season 3-27 and 1-19 in Pac 12 play. The Beavers will play Oregon in the first round of the Pac 12 tournament and will need a miracle run for any postseason chance.

Eastern Washington men 83, Portland State 75 — The Vikings win streak came to a close like the regular season on Saturday. PSU only trailed by three at halftime, but 27 points a piece from Angelo Allegri and Linton Acliese III on the EWU side sealed it. Khalid Thomas tried his best to match with 26 points and 11 rebounds of his own.

PSU finishes the season 12-16 overall, 10-10 in Big Sky play to take seventh place. The Vikings will play last place Idaho State to open the Big Sky tournament next week.

Portland women 69, Loyola Marymount 44 — The Pilots are heading to the West Coast Conference semifinals after taking down the Lions easily. The two were tied at 14 following the first quarter, but Portland outscored Loyola 40-16 over the next two quarters to put the game out of reach.

Portland will play No. 1 seed BYU next on Monday, the Cougars are also ranked No. 17 in the country.

Diamond roundup — Oregon baseball split a doubleheader with UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, winning in seven innings 4-3 in game one then dropping 5-4 in game two. The Ducks won the first game of the series 3-2 on Friday, meaning Sunday’s series closer is shaping up to be a good one with all three previous games decided by one run.

Sticking with the Ducks, the softball team won two games Saturday, both 9-1 final scores over Connecticut and North Carolina at the Carolina Classic. Oregon is off to a hot 15-3 start and plays one more game in Chapel Hill against Connecticut on Sunday.

Oregon State baseball moved to 9-0 with a 9-5 win over visiting UC Irvine, putting them up 2-0 in the series. They’ll play the final game Sunday.

The Beavers softball team is also off to a hot start with two more wins on Saturday. OSU took down CSUN 5-0 then California Baptist 7-0 to move to 16-3 on the year. Sarah Haendiges threw a complete-game one-hitter against CSUN with six strikeouts, then Mariah Mazon backed it up in game two against Cal Baptist throwing a four-hitter with nine strikeouts.

Portland State softball won the rubber match with Robert Morris on Saturday 4-0 to run the Vikings record up to 11-7 this season. And finally, Portland Pilots baseball dropped a 1-0 game at Fresno State to fall to 8-2 thanks to only three hits. The rubber match will be Sunday at 1 p.m.

UFC — From the “Did you know?” file: The brash and brazen UFC welterweight fighter Colby Covington, who beat rival and former friend Jorge Masvidal in UFC 272 in Las Vegas on Saturday, grew up in Oregon and attended and wrestled at Thurston High School in Springfield. He won a state title in his senior year at Thurston and, after failed attempts to attend Arizona State and Iowa, settled at Oregon State, where he won a Pac-12 title. He’s now the No. 1-ranked UFC welterweight, and joins a long list of people with Oregon connections to make headlines in UFC, including Randy Couture, Chris Leben and Chael Sonnen — and Team Quest, which included Dan Henderson and Matt Lindland.

FRIDAY, MARCH 4

Portland men 73, San Diego 55 — The rejuvenation of Pilots men’s basketball took another step Friday as Portland advanced to the quarterfinals of the West Coast Conference Tournament for the first time since 2017.

Moses Wood scored a career-high 28 points, 21 in the second half as the Pilots pulled away.

Portland (18-13), the No. 6 seed, will face No. 3-seed Santa Clara at 9:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2 TV).

Despite starting point guard Mike Meadows (back) missing the game, Portland had a season-low five turnovers.

On defense, the Pilots held the Toreros to 36%, including 3-of-20 3-point shooting.

Wood finished 9 of 15, including 5 of 8 on 3-pointers, as the Pilots shot 47% as a team.

Kristen Sjolund had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Tyler Robertson 10 points, nine assists and six boards and Chika Nduka 14 points and seven rebounds.

Santa Clara beat visiting Portland 102-89 last Saturday. The Broncos did not visit Portland, declining to play a scheduled make-up game at Chiles Center.

Utah women 80, Oregon 73 — The Ducks chances of hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament ended as the Utes used a huge third quarter and a controversial turn of events midway through the fourth quarter to beat the Ducks in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals at Las Vegas.

Utah (20-10) will face Stanford on Sunday for the Pac-12 tournament title. Oregon (20-11) must regroup before the NCAA Tournament, matchups for which will be announced March 13.

Utah made five 3-pointers and held Oregon to 1-of-12 shooting to outscore the Ducks 23-8 and build a 10-point lead.

The Ducks rallied to lead 61-60 when Nyarra Sabally fouled out. Sabally was called for fouling Utah’s Kennady McQueen on a 3-point attempt. Ducks coach Kelly Grtaves was then hit with a technical foul (he said postgame that he didn’t say a thing to the referee on that play) and Utah made 4 of 5 foul shots to regain the lead and momentum.

Sabally, saddled with foul trouble and hobbled, played less than 18 minutes and finished with 12 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Te-Hina Paopao led Oregon with 17 points and four assists and Endyia Rogers had 15 points, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot. Sedona Prince had 12 points five boards and two blocks, but the Ducks were unable to take advantage of their height inside.

Gianna Kneepkens led Utah with 24 points. The Utes made 9 of 31 3-pointers, but the five that went in in the third quarter turned the tide in a game Oregon led 25-14 after one quarter.

Eastern Washington women 68, Portland State 50 — The Vikings led early, but finish winless in the Big Sky Conference. The Eagles outscored PSU 37-19 in the second half.

Portland State will face Idaho at 7 p.m. Monday in Boise at the Big Sky Tournament.

College baseball —Gavin Grant led off the ninth with a game-winning home run as Oregon (6-3) scored single runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to rally to beat UC Santa Barbara 3-2 at PK Park. … Oregon State improved to 8-0 with a 7-2 win over UC Irvine. Cooper Hjerpe and Ben Ferrer combined for 17 strikeouts and Justin Boyd hit his first career home run in front of 3,287 fans at Goss Stadium. … Portland improved to 8-1 with a 7-4 win at Fresno State. A five-run eighth inning highlighted the comeback win.

College softball — Ariel Carlson hit two home runs in an eight-run fourth inning and the Ducks (13-3) hit four HRs in a 12-4 five-inning win over Penn State at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. … Oregon State pitchers Mariah Mazon and Tarni Stepto combined to allow five hits and one run over 12 innings in wins over Sacred Heart 6-0 and UC Riverside 9-1 at Riverside, California. The Beavers (14-3) have won 11 in a row. … In its first home games of the season at Hillsboro, Portland State split two with Robert Morris, winning 6-2 and losing 8-1. In the win, Paetynn Lopez went 3 for 3 with a double and two RBIs and winning pitcher Olivia Grey struck out 10.

College gymnastics — Jade Carey’s eighth consecutive all-around win (39.750) helped Oregon State win at Arizona, 196.675-195.925, the Beavers’ first road win of the season.

THURSDAY, MARCH 3

Oregon women 63, UCLA 60 — In a game needed badly for UCLA’s NCAA tournament hopes and the Ducks hopes of hosting in part of the big dance were on the line in this one.

Trailing by three going into the fourth quarter, Oregon stepped up on defense and only gave up seven points to the Bruins in the final frame while scoring 13 to pull out the three-point victory.

Sedona Prince and Nyara Sabally had one of their best games together with Prince posting 12 points and 12 rebounds while Sabally had 15 points and 15 rebounds. Endyia Rogers was no slouch either, leading the team with 16 points and handing out six assists.

The 2-seeded Ducks move to the Pac-12 semifinals where they will play the winner of Utah and Washington State. Stanford and Colorado will play in the other semifinal, both games on Friday night with the Ducks set to tipoff at 8:30 p.m.

Washington men 78, Oregon 67 — The chances of the Oregon men getting into the big dance from at-large bid seem to be a thing of the past with the loss to the Huskies on Thursday night.

Already on the bubble and needed to close out strong, the Ducks had no answer for the Washington trio of Emmitt Matthews Jr., Nate Roberts and Terrell Brown. Matthews and Brown each had 25 points while Roberts posted 18 and also corralled 16 rebounds.

Meanwhile on the Ducks side, Will Richardson was held scoreless and only had three assists in 32 minutes of action. De’Vion Harmon led in scoring with 17 points while Quincy Guerrier had 16 and Jacob Young had 14.

Now at 18-12 overall and 11-7 in Pac-12 play, the Ducks need a win at Washington State at 1 p.m. Saturday to try and secure the No. 4 seed for the Pac-12 tournament. Once there, it looks like the Ducks will need to win the tournament to get a bid, or put on a convincing enough performance to skid into March Madness.

Stanford women 57, Oregon State 44 — From the jump, the Beavers didn’t stand much of a chance in the second round of the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament against top seed Stanford. The Cardinal led after the first quarter 16-2 and never gave that lead back.

Haley Jones went off for the Cardinal, scoring 20 points, grabbing 14 rebounds and dishing out six assists. Beaverton product Cameron Brink put up 10 points and six rebounds.

Emily Codding and Ellie Mack paced the Beavers with 13 points each, the latter putting up nine rebounds as well. The loss for the Beavers, sitting at 14-13 after an eighth place finish in the Pac-12, likely have seen their chances of an NCAA tournament bid disappear after starting the season ranked in the top 25.

Washington State men 71, Oregon State 67 — Another competitive game from the Beavers fell just short on Thursday night.

Tied at 32 going into the break, OSU gave itself another great chance for win number four on the season and its second in Pac 12 play, but the Cougars were able to hold on late.

The Beavers were led by Maurice Calloo’s 20 points and seven rebounds while Dexter Akanno pitched in 12 points and Jarod Lucas had 11.

OSU is now a dismal 3-26 on the season and a staggering 1-19 in Pac 12 play. The misery of the regular season begins to end at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Washington before the Pac 12 tournament next week in Las Vegas.

Portland State men 79, Idaho 68 — Don’t look now but the Vikings might be the hottest team coming into the Big Sky Conference tournament next week. PSU made it four consecutive conference wins Thursday with the win over the Vandals, are also winners of eight of their past 10 games.

Fresh off a conference player of the week honor, Khalid Thomas posted 14 points and 11 boards in the win, while Marlon Ruffin led the Vikings in scoring with 19 points. Ezekiel Alley had 15 points and Michael Carter III had 11 to help the cause.

PSU is now 12-15 overall and back to .500 in conference play at 9-9, good enough for a tie for sixth with Eastern Washington. The Vikings close out the regular season at 2 p.m. on the road at those same Eagles.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2

OSU women 59, Arizona State 54 — The Beavers moved to a quarterfinal game against Stanford in the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament at Las Vegas, surviving a late rally by Arizona State.

Oregon State (14-12) started fast, led 40-26 after three quarters and led by 17 points early in the fourth quarter as Arizona State struggled shooting.

But, the Sun Devils (12-14) rallied to within two points on Taya Hanson’s 3-pointer that made it 52-50, and then trailed 53-51 after a Hanson free throw.

The Beavers stepped up to close out the game. Greta Kampschroeder scored on a layup off a long pass against the ASU press from Talia von Oelhoffen. After an ASU miss, von Oelhoffen hit two free throws to make it 57-51; von Oelhoffen added another couple free throws later.

Ellie Mack had 14 points for Oregon State, which plays Stanford on Thursday. Oelhoffen added 13 points.

Hanson had 18 points for Arizona State.

Paredes extension — The Portland Timbers have signed midfielder Cristhian Paredes to a four-year contract extension through the 2025 season with a club option.

The 23-year-old Paredes is in his sixth season with Portland. The Paraguay native has started in 60 of 79 appearances, scoring eight goals and tallying eight assists. He’s made six appearances with the Paraguayan national team.

Idaho 73, PSU women 68 — Beyonce Bea, a Washougal, Washington product, had 40 points, making 16 of 22 shots from the field and grabbing seven rebounds in the Vandals’ win at Viking Pavilion.

The Vikings (5-22, 0-19 Big Sky) lost their 17th consecutive game. Esmeralda Morales scored 22 points and Savannah Dhaliwal 19.

College baseball — Portland beat host Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo, California, 5-4. The bullpen pitched six innings of shutout ball. Briley Knight homered and scored the go-ahead run in the ninth inning. The Pilots matched the best start in program history at 7-1.

Thorns roster — The Portland Thorns have updated their preseason roster as the team prepares for the NWSL season.

Midfielder Hina Sugita has joined the team, beginning training Tuesday. Midfielder Olivia Moultrie won’t be with the team initially, as she’s playing with the U.S. U-20 Women’s Youth National Team.

The Thorns play a preseason tournament this weekend at Providence Park, starting Saturday against Chicago Red Stars.

The preseason roster:

Goalkeepers: Bella Bixby, Shelby Hogan, Abby Smith

Defenders:Kelli Hubly, Meghan Klingenberg, Natalia Kuikka (INTL), Emily Menges, Meaghan Nally, Madison Pogarch, Becky Sauerbrunn

Midfielders: Sam Coffey, Crystal Dunn, Olivia Moultrie, Gabby Provenzano (CDP), Rocky Rodríguez, Yazmeen Ryan, Hina Sugita (INTL)

Forwards: Natalie Beckman (CDP), Hannah Betfort, Marissa Everett, Christine Sinclair, Sophia Smith, Morgan Weaver

Key:

NRI — Non-roster invitee

NYR — Not yet reported to camp

INTL — International Player

CDP — 2022 NWSL Draft Pick

Willits No. 1 — Oregon State junior Grant Willits enters Sunday’s Pac-12 wrestling championships at Arizona State University as the No. 1 seed at 141 pounds.

Six other OSU wrestlers are seeded No. 2: Brandon Kaylor (125 pounds), Devan Turner (133), Hunter Willits (157), Mateo Olmos (174), Trey Munoz (184) and Gary Traub (heavyweight).

Turner and Willits will be vying for their third Pac-12 titles.

TUESDAY, MARCH 1

Taylor Gauthier joining Penguins — Portland Winterhawks goaltender Taylor Gauthier signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. Gauthier will remain with Portland for the remainder of the season still and will report to Pittsburgh following the season.

Gauthier has played five seasons in the WHL, this one being his first Portland after the Winterhawks traded for him back on Dec. 27, 2021 from the Prince George Cougars. Since then, Gauthier has stood on his head with a 13-1-0-0 record and leads the league with a .932 save percentage. He’s also second in the WHL with 2.17 GAA and three shutouts. He was named the league’s Goaltender of the Month for January and broke the Winterhawks’ team record of longest shutout streak with 251 minutes, 11 seconds of game time without giving up a goal.

Gauthier joins other former Winterhawks Derrick Pouliot, Joe Morrow and Andrew Ference who also signed with the Penguins.

Player of the week roundup — Oregon State landed three players of the week, one in softball and two in gymnastics.

Mariah Mazon struck out 27 batters in three appearances over 17.2 innings of work last week for Beavers softball, helping her earn Pac 12 Player of the Week. She gave up just eight hits, four walks and one earned run as OSU went 3-2 at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic. That was just the beginning though as Mazon threw a no-hitter against CSUN on Feb. 26, picking up 13 strikeouts.

At the plate, Mazon led all players at the Mary Nutter with 11 total hits, 13 RBIs and four doubles, as well as the second most runs scored with eight.

In the gym, Jade Carey, no surprise, once again won the Pac 12 Freshman of the Week. She tied her OSU all-around record with a 39.825 against Stanford last Friday and also scored a perfect 10 on her floor routine, second for her in the event and third perfect 10 all-time.

Carey’s teammate Kaitlyn Yanish was named the Specialist of the Week. The senior went out in style in the Beavers final home meet with a floor score of 9.95, second only to Carey, and also took third in the vault.

Also picking up a Player of the Week nod was Portland State men’s basketball’s Khalid Thomas in the Big Sky Conference. Thomas helped the Vikings take down second-place Weber State last week, as well as pull out an overtime win over Idaho State.

Thomas averaged 22 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3 steals as he went 17 for 31 from the field and 5 for 9 from deep. Thomas had a career-high against ISU with 27 points.

Thomas is from Salem, Oregon and attended . He leads the team with 11.9 points per game, 6 rebounds a game and 1.9 steals a game this season.

MONDAY, FEB. 28

UO’s Ware — Oregon men’s basketball signee Kel’el Ware, a 7-foot center from North Little Rock, Arkansas, has been named to the 2022 Nike Hoop Summit Team, selected by the USA Basketball Men’s Developmental National Team Committee.

It means Ware will play in the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, 7 p.m. Friday, April 8 at Moda Center.

Ten USA players play 10 international players (the World Select Team) in the game.

Ware is averaging 21.2 points, 12 rebounds and 5.7 blocks this season for Arkansas’ defending Class 6A champs. He had an 18-block triple-double this season.

Washington State 103, OSU men 97, OT — The Beavers (3-25, 1-17 Pac-12) were competitive but lost to the Cougars at Gill Coliseum. It was their 15th consecutive loss.

WSU outscored the Beavers 19-13 in overtime.

Roman Silva had 21 points and Jarod Lucas 20 points for OSU, which shot .565 from the field. Michael Flowers had 27 for the Cougars, who shot .585 from the field.

The Beavers conclude the regular season with games at Washington State (Thursday) and Washington (Saturday).

Blazer5 Gaming — Mikias Yohannes has been named general manager of the video-team team Blazer5 Gaming, which plays against other teams in NBA2K League.

He’s originally from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and he emigrated to Dallas, Texas with his family at a young age. He had a successful career playing in the Overwatch League.

“He brings a wealth of knowledge of the world of esports, having competed at the highest level in a variety of games,” said Cameron McAlees, head of Esports, Trail Blazers. “His background will allow for easy collaboration with players and coach (Andrew) Maxie while helping Blazer5 Gaming grow.”

The team also added three players through the NBA2K League draft: Joshua “unguardable” Hunter, Dorian Earl “Bucket” Miller and Robert “CantGuardRob” Nastasi.

Hops tickets — Single game tickets for the 2022 Hillsboro Hops home season at Ron Tonkin Field go on sale at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 1.

They’ll be available at the team’s ticket website page, http://www.milb.com/hillsboro/tickets/single-game-tickets, as well as in person at the Hops front office at Ron Tonkin Field or by calling 503-640-0887.

The Hops’ season starts April 8 with a series against Tri-City at Ron Tonkin Field.

College baseball — Oregon (5-3) beat St. John’s 6-0 to sweep the four-game home series, outscoring them 58-9. Josiah Cromwick hit a three-run homer and Tommy Brandenburg allowed one hit in five innings. The Ducks have scored 79 runs in their past five games.

Yimmi Chara honored — Portland Timbers midfielder Yimmi Chara has been named to the MLS Team of the Week for week one. He helped the Timbers earn a 2-2 draw against the New England Revolution, executing a bicycle-kick goal in the 78th minute to tie the match. He also tallied an assist.

The Timbers play at LAFC on Sunday, March 6.

Beavs rained out — Tuesday’s nonleague baseball game between Oregon State and Seattle at Goss Stadium in Corvallis will not be played because of forecasted rain. No makeup game has been announced.

The Beavers are 7-0, and will now hold their home opener Friday against UC Irvine.

Idaho 64, PSU women 39 — At Moscow, Idaho, the Vikings (5-21, 0-18 Big Sky) led after one quarter but lost their 16th consecutive game. Esmeralda Morales had 10 points for PSU, which plays Idaho again Wednesday at Viking Pavilion.