College Roundup: ‘Eaters champs again

DAVIS — The UC Irvine women’s water polo team earned its fourth straight Big West Conference Tournament championship by defeating UC Davis, 10-5, Sunday at the Aggies’ pool.

The win gives the No. 6-ranked Anteaters (24-6) the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, May 11-13 at San Diego State.

Junior Jessy Cardey scored four goals, while Hillary Estrada and Katie Croghan had two apiece for the top-seeded winners, who received five saves from Jillian Yocum. Cardey was named Tournament MVP.

UCI, which has won three straight and 11 of its last 12, led, 4-1, after one period and was never threatened.

UC Davis, ranked No. 10 and seeded No. 2, fell to 18-13.

BASEBALL

UC Irvine 6, UC Riverside 5

IRVINE — Freshman catcher Chris Rabago’s pinch-hit single broke a 5-5 tie in the 11th inning as the host Anteaters completed a three-game Big West Conference series sweep Sunday.

Freshman catcher Jerry McClanahan was three for five with three runs batted in to pace the Anteaters’ 14-hit attack, which included two hits each by D.J. Crumlich, Connor Spencer, Jeff Stephens and Christian Ramirez.

Junior Race Parmenter pitched two scoreless relief innings to earn the win for UCI (23-17, 8-7 in conference).

UCR fell to 14-23, 4-8.

Doubleheader

SANTA BARBARA — Visiting Vanguard dropped a pair to Westmont to conclude the Golden State Athletic Conference regular season on Saturday.

The Lions lost the opener, 10-9, before falling, 8-2, in the second game.

Vanguard finished tied for fifth with Westmont and Fresno Pacific, but lost tiebreakers to both and was left out of the six-team conference tournament that begins Tuesday.

Vanguard finishes 23-21, 13-19 in conference.

VU’s Michael Castello was six for eight with four runs batted in and Hank Yates was five for eight with two RBIs.

MEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Steve Scott Invitational

IRVINE — UC Irvine senior Charles Jock broke a 10-year meet record by winning the 800 meters in 1 minute, 46.59 seconds on Sunday at Anteater Stadium.

Jock bested the previous meet record of 1:46.82 set by Khadevis Robinson in 2002.

Jock also ran a 45.7 anchor leg on UCI’s winning 4x400 relay that posted a season-best time of 3:09.89. Dominic Jester, Jacob Yowell and Chris Carson rounded out the relay.

Yowell was fifth in the 110 hurdles in 14.12 seconds and Stephen Brown was fourth in the pole vault with a clearance of 15 feet, 7 inches.

UCI’s Tommy Newton-Neal was sixth in the 1,500 in 3:51.44.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Long Beach State 4,

UC Irvine 1

INDIAN WELLS — Marivick Mamiit earned the lone set victory for the No. 3-seeded Anteaters in the final of the Big West Conference Tournament on Sunday at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

UCI surrendered the doubles point and Courtney Byron, Franziska Goettsching and Kat Facey lost singles matches that were completed.

UCI finished 16-8, while No. 1-seeded Long Beach State is 18-5. It was the eighth conference title in nine years for the 49ers, who are now 6-1 against UCI in title matches.

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

Steve Scott Invitational

IRVINE — UC Irvine’s KayC Wharton, Amber Middleton, Kelly Collins and Ericka Nowell combined to run 3 minutes, 42.69 seconds to break a 21-year-old school record and finish second at the event completed Sunday.

Nowell was third in the 400 in 58.82 seconds, while Itos Aikhionbare was third in the shot put (44 feet, 11/4 inches).

Middleton was sixth in the 100 hurdles.

MEN’S GOLF

Orange Empire

Conference finals

CHINO HILLS – Freshman Jaime Moreno shot even-par 144 for two rounds, finishing second and helping the Pirates win the team tournament at Los Serranos Golf Course on Monday.

Kyle Frame (147), Marcus Mercado-Kiel (147), Chris Cochran (150) and Adam Oser (150) also scored for OCC.

Saddleback sophomore Tommy Hug (142) was the medalist.

Big West Conference

Championship

LA QUINTA — UC Irvine junior Michael Yang and sophomore Allan Jun are 10th and UCI is fifth after 36 holes of the 54-hole event that concludes Tuesday at the La Quinta Mountain Course.

Yang and Jun have a two-round total of 144, eight shots off the lead.

Pete Fernandez (15th at 145) and Ryan Knapp (16th at 146) are also playing well for UCI, which with a team score of 579 is nine shots off the lead.

MEN’S TENNIS

UC Santa Barbara 4,

UC Irvine 2

INDIAN WELLS — The No. 3-seeded Anteaters fell in the semifinals of the Big West Conference Tournament on Saturday at Indian Wells.

The Anteaters won the doubles point, but only Sam Gould managed a singles victory in matches that were completed.