After back-and-forth fight, UW softball falls to Utah

In a back-and-forth battle, No. 9 Washington dropped the series opener against host Utah 5-4 on Friday.

Ruby Meylan (9-8) got the start, tossing 41/3 innings with three walks, three strikeouts and five runs (three earned). Sidne Peters came on in relief, throwing the final 12/3 innings with no hits allowed and two strikeouts.

The Huskies (31-11, 13-9 Pac-12) scored first, with two runs in the second.

Utah (31-19, 9-13) tied the game in the bottom of the fourth with a pair of unearned runs.

Brooke Nelson gave the Huskies the lead once again with her 12th home run of the season for the 3-2 advantage. It was Nelson’s eighth home run since the beginning of April.

Utah responded with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 5-3 lead.

Down to the final three outs, Rylee Holtorf led off with a first-pitch home run to make it a one-run game. The Huskies were able to get the tying run on but couldn’t bring in the run.

• Seattle U split a doubleheader at UT Arlington. The Redhawks (21-30, 13-12 WAC) won the first game 4-1, and the Mavericks (21-31, 11-13) took the second 5-3.

BASEBALL

• After the UW Huskies (17-21-1, 8-14) tied it in the ninth, host Arizona State (25-22, 13-12) won it in the 10th with a walkoff grand slam, 11-7.

• Host WSU (19-24, 7-14 Pac-12) fell 2-1 to Oregon State (34-11, 13-8).

• Seattle U dropped its opening game with Utah Valley, 3-9 in Orem, Utah. The Redhawks (13-32, 6-16 WAC) scored the first two runs of the night, but the Wolverines (24-22, 14-8 WAC) responded with big fourth and eighth innings to knock off SU.

MINORS

• The Tacoma Rainiers (18-13) ended their three-game losing streak to the Sacramento River Cats (20-11), winning Game 4 of the series 6-3 in Sacramento. Tacoma scored four runs in the second on an RBI single from Brian Anderson and back-to-back doubles from Blake Hunt and Jonatan Clase.

• Rainiers starting pitcher Jhonathan Diaz was named Minor League Pitcher of the Month by both the Mariners and Minor League Baseball. In April, he went 4-0 with a 2.89 ERA in five games (four starts).

• Ty Cummings picked up his first win of the season at Funko Field, propelling Everett to an 8-5 victory over Hillsboro. It was his fourth start allowing two runs or fewer. Cummings threw five innings of one-run ball while striking out four Hops.

TENNIS

• WSU sophomores Eva Alvarez Sande and Yura Nakagawa earned All-Pac-12 women’s tennis honors for 2024, the conference announced. Alvarez Sande was named to the second team. Nakagawa earned honorable mention.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

• The UW beach volleyball team’s year came to a close in a 3-1 loss to No. 4 Florida State University in the NCAA tournament in Gulf Shores, Ala. Zoey Henson and Lauren Wilcock picked up UW’s only win.

RUGBY

• The Seattle Seawolves topped visiting Anthem RC 29-13.