Navarro Helps Aztecs Win WAC Opener

Rick Navarro pitched a one-hitter through eight innings to help the San Diego State baseball team shut out Colorado State, 9-0, Friday in both teams’ Western Athletic Conference opener at SDSU’s Smith Field.

Navarro, a junior left-hander, struck out 10 and didn’t give up a hit until the sixth inning. He was relieved in the ninth inning.

Jason Ledford went three for four with two doubles, an RBI and two runs scored for SDSU (16-7, 1-0). SDSU’s Bill Dunckel went two for four with a double, a triple and scored twice. Colorado State is now 8-10, 9-1.

The teams will meet again at 5 p.m. today for a doubleheader.

U.S. International broke out of a 12-game hitting slump with a season-high three home runs to defeat Metro State, 6-5, at USIU.

Mike Murphy, who went two for four, had the game winning RBI--a solo homer in the seventh, for USIU (7-19). Mike Vallarelli, who also had a solo home run, went two for four with two RBIs. Metro State is 10-8.

Scott Williams and Jim Kennedy hit back-to-back home runs to start a four-run, fourth-inning rally as Occidental edged Point Loma Nazarene, 4-3, in a nonconference game.

The Crusaders (10-14) scored a run in the ninth but came up short for their sixth loss in a row and 11th in 12 games. Occidental, which had 14 hits off four PLNC pitchers including loser Ben Smith (1-1), won for only the second time in 12 games.

MEN’S TENNIS

University of San Diego defeated Ball State, 5-3, in the first round of consolation at the Blue-Gray National Collegiate Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala.

USD’s No. 1 Jose Luis Noriega defeat Don Kronauge, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. Noriega then teamed with Kevin Bradley to defeat Kronauge and Scott Campbell, 6-0, 6-4, to clinch the match for USD (9-10).

Kronauge and Campbell are ranked ninth nationally, Noriega and Bradley 19th. USD will play Mississippi State today.

At Berkeley, seventh-ranked Cal defeated San Diego State, 6-2. Cal’s Bent Pederson, ranked seventh nationally, turned back the Aztecs’ 57th-ranked Ricardo Herrera, 7-5, 6-4 in No. 1 singles.

Dax Peterson was SDSU’s lone winner in singles. Joe McDenna and Kery Safdie won for the Aztecs in doubles. SDSU is 9-3, Cal 10-2.

WOMEN’S TENNIS

The University of San Diego’s 9-0 rout of visiting Minnesota was so dominating the closest match of the day was 7-5, 6-2 at No. 1 doubles. That 7-5 was also the nearest USD came to losing a set as the Toreras won 217 games to the Gophers’ 36.

No. 15 USD improved to 8-7. Minnesota fell to 0-11.

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Third-ranked SDSU dropped its first game before regrouping to win the next three, 1-15, 15-12, 15-12, 15-7 against Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne (Ind.) in the first round of the IPFW Invitational.

SDSU (14-3) was led by Mike Schlegel’s 24 kills and Mike Mattarocci’s 22. IPFW is 12-7.

MEN’S SWIMMING

UC San Diego freshman Travis Miller had another big day at the NCAA Division III championships at Atlanta, but UCSD fell to fifth from second after the second of the three-day meet.

Miller won the 100 backstroke in near record time--51.41 seconds--swam the anchor leg of UCSD’s impressive second-place finish in the 800 freestyle relay and led off the Tritons’ fourth-place 200 medley relay effort.

Travis’ time in the 100 back was the second fastest ever in Division III, missing the 51.31 record set by UCSD’s Bill Kazmierowicz in 1986. In two days, Travis has a first and a second, tying him for second with 37 individual points, and has swum on relays that have recorded one second and two fourths.

Kenyon (Ohio), which has won 11 consecutive Division III titles, is well on its way to its 12th with nearly 200 points more than Wheaton (Ill.), which has 196. Claremont-Mudd has 190, Denison (Ohio) 184 and UCSD 181.