A Loss Trojans Want to Forget

USC has accomplished much in its 81-year baseball history but Tuesday will rank among one of the Trojans’ most embarrassing days.

Loyola Marymount (9-16) dealt the visiting Trojans a 31-7 defeat in a nonconference game. It was USC’s worst loss and the 31 runs were its most given up.

The Lions scored 18 runs in their final two at-bats. Freshman third baseman Jonathan Oller hit two three-run home runs in a 10-run seventh inning. Loyola had 27 hits, drew eight walks and benefited from the Trojans’ five errors.

“It was one of those days where [USC] walked a few people and that kind of started it,” Loyola Coach Frank Cruz said. “The last couple of innings, it seemed like whatever our guys hit found a hole.”

USC used eight pitchers. Starter J.P. Howell gave up three runs (one earned) in 21/3 innings, but relievers Jon Williams (four earned runs), Chad Clark (six runs), Sam Ramirez (six runs) and Clayton Wentworth (seven runs) had outings to forget. The Trojans had to bring in Dale Legaspi, a little-used reserve infielder, to get the final three outs.

“I wish we had some valid alibi or excuse,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said. “I really don’t think that’s the case. I don’t recall being involved in anything like that.

“I hope to erase the memory of this one very, very quickly.”

Cruz, a former assistant to Gillespie, wasn’t about to gloat.

“You can’t lose sight of the fact that they didn’t get home until about two or three in the morning,” he said. “They might have been a tired team.”

USC (12-10) played Monday night at San Diego State and won, 8-6, in a four-hour, six-minute game. The Trojans were coming off a weekend sweep of Pepperdine. .

Long Beach State, ranked 17th by Baseball America, swept a three-game series at UC Riverside to open Big West Conference play. Abe Alvarez improved to 5-0, giving up one earned run in seven innings of a 4-2 victory Friday. The 49ers had a season-high 15 hits in a 9-2 victory Saturday, and won, 10-3, Sunday.

UCLA, coming off a victory over Pepperdine and a loss to UC Irvine last week, travels to Miami for a three-game series.

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Cal State Fullerton won its Kia Klassic softball tournament for the second consecutive year after defeating Texas, 2-0, in the championship game Sunday on catcher Jenny Topping’s ninth-inning home run. The ninth-ranked Titans (27-9) won all seven of their games in the tournament and have won 18 in a row.

Cal State Northridge pulled off the upset of the tournament with its 4-3 victory over No. 2-ranked and defending NCAA champion Arizona. Sondra Milchiker, who drove in three runs, singled in Jade Abel in the sixth inning with the winning run, ending the Wildcats’ 20-game winning streak.

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Pepperdine golfer Katherine Hull shot an NCAA-record 64 in her final round and totaled a nine-under-par 207 to take medalist honors and lead the Waves to a victory in the UCLA Pioneer Electronics Bruin Classic at Temecula’s Menifee Lakes Country Club.

Hull was eight under in the final round to break the record of 65 set by numerous players. Her 54-hole score broke the school record set by Tamie Durdin in 1999.

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Joanna Hughes and Therea O’Gara had the first perfect 10 scores in the history of Cal State Fullerton gymnastics in the Titans’ meet Friday against Utah State. Hughes hit the mark on the uneven parallel bars and O’Gara matched it on the balance beam. Fullerton won, 195.000 to 192.825.

In a matchup of two top-five teams Saturday, UCLA lost to Alabama, 197.650 to 197.000, in a nonconference meet before 10,077 at Tuscaloosa, Ala. Doni Thompson and Jamie Dantzscher had the Bruins’ top performances with scores of 9.95 and 9.925, respectively, in the uneven bars.

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USC freshman Blythe Hartley swept the three diving events at the NCAA Zone E Diving Meet at Stanford, winning the platform, 1-meter springboard and 3-meter springboard events. Three Trojans--Hartley, Nicci Fusaro and Kellie Brennan--qualified for Thursday’s NCAA Championships at Austin, Texas. UCLA junior Heidi Prosser also qualified by finishing third in the 3-meter.