NCAA BASEBALL TOURNAMENT : Washington State Too Tough for Loyola Marymount

Rob Nichols had three hits and three runs batted in while Darrin Kitchen, Eric Wulf and Scott Smith hit home runs as Pacific 10 Northern Division champion Washington State used a 19-hit attack to rout Loyola Marymount, 13-2, in the first round of the West II Regional Friday at Tempe, Ariz.

Kitchen hit a two-run homer, his 10th of the season, in the second inning before Wulf followed with another homer to give Washington State a 3-0 lead.

The Cougars (47-17) chased Lion starter Jon Willard (13-4) with a three-run rally in the third inning. Willard, a junior right-hander, gave up seven hits and six runs (five earned) in 2 1/3 innings.

Smith’s two-run homer put the Cougars ahead, 12-1, in the sixth inning.

“They put the ball in play so hard,” Loyola Coach Chris Smith said. “They’re as good as you can get. When somebody plays that well, it’s tough to win.

“These kind of days can happen to anybody. It’s just unfortunate that it had to happen in the NCAAs. . . We’re a good club, but some people may not know it.”

Tim Williams and Tony Kounas drove in the Lions’ runs.

Loyola (45-16), the West Coast Conference champion, will play the winner of Friday night’s game between Pacific 10 Southern Division runner-up Arizona State (49-14) and Pennsylvania (22-15) today at 3:30 p.m. in the double-elimination tournament.

Washington State will play Big Eight champion Oklahoma State in the second round tonight at 7 p.m. The Cowboys beat UC Santa Barbara, 7-2.

South Alabama 6, UCLA 4--The Bruins couldn’t overcome a strong pitching performance by Mike Zimmerman in the first round of the Midwest Regional at Wichita, Kan.

Zimmerman gave up eight hits, but he struck out 13 and went the distance to raise his record to 12-6. UCLA (39-25) starter Tim Lindsay, meanwhile, gave up nine hits and six runs (all earned) in 6 2/3 innings.

Jaguar first baseman Robby Robertson keyed a four-run first inning with a two-run homer. He also stole home as part of a double-steal in the seventh inning when South Alabama (42-18) broke a 4-4 tie.

Oklahoma State 7, UC Santa Barbara 2--Dennis Burbank, who pitched at Pepperdine in 1988 and at Cypress College last season, restricted the Gauchos to seven hits in another first-round game at the West II Regional.

Michel Simons had a run-scoring double in the second inning and hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to lead the Cowboys.

After giving up a leadoff single to Jerrold Rountree, Burbank (9-1) picked off Rountree. He then retired the next 12 batters before yielding a single to Nick Satriano in the fifth inning.

UC Santa Barbara (40-21) plays the loser of the Arizona State-Pennsylvania game today at noon.

Stanford 6, Middle Tennessee State 1--Mike Mussina and Scott Weiss combined to pitch a five-hitter as the Pacific 10 Southern Division champion Cardinal (54-10) remained unbeaten in the West I Regional at Stanford.

Ryan Turner’s bases-loaded triple off reliever Rob Angell highlighted a four-run eighth-inning that broke open what had been a pitching battle between Mussina and Tom Wegmann.

Mussina (13-3) gave up four hits over the first eight innnings, striking out five and walking one. Wegman (7-2) pitched 7 2/3 innings, striking out nine while yielding four hits.

Mussina, who retired 19 of 20 batters at one point, extended the Stanford staff’s postseason scoreless-inning streak to 16 before the Blue Raiders (42-15) scored in the eighth. Weiss pitched the ninth.

San Diego State 8, Fresno State 4--Scott Dennison and Eric Christopherson hit home runs and Adam Petersen pitched a complete game as the Aztecs also remained unbeaten in the West I Regional.

Western Athletic Conference champion San Diego State (48-20) had 11 hits and scored six runs in 4 2/3 innings against Bulldog starter Erik Schullstrom (7-7).

Bill Dunckel, who hit two homers and drove in six runs Thursday in an 18-6 win over Middle Tennessee State, had two hits and three more RBIs.

Rick Lantrip and Chris Falco hit back-to-back homers in the fifth inning for the Bulldogs (38-23).