Hornish Sprints to Thrilling Indy 500 Win

(INDIANAPOLIS) - Sam Hornish Jr. overcame a disastrous mistake in the pits and a pair of Andrettis on Sunday to win the Indianapolis 500.

In the second-closest finish in Indy history, Hornish made a late charge on Michael Andretti and his 19-year-old son Marco, who were a heartbeat from erasing years of family frustration before the the polesitter overtook the rookie in the final, thrilling stretch.

Hornish lost a lap late in the race when he was penalized for leaving his pit with the fuel hose still connected. Somehow, with pit strategies playing a role, he found himself back on the lead lap and in fourth place under yellow in the last 10 laps.

When the green flag flew with four laps to go, Hornish trailed only the Andrettis and Scott Dixon. That's when Hornish, who has been the fastest driver here virtually the entire month, began his charge.

No. 7 Ranked OSU Softball Tops No. 6 California, 1-0

Win earns Oregon State first ever Women's College World Series Appearance.

(CORVALLIS) - The No. 7 ranked Oregon State softball team posted a 1-0 victory over No. 6 ranked University of California in Sunday`s NCAA Super Regional championship game. With the victory, the Beavers earn their first-ever Women`s College World Series berth.

In similar fashion to the opening game of the day, Oregon State (43-14) took an early advantage. Three straight singles by Cambria Miranda, Mia Longfellow and Adrienne Alo to open the contest and a sacrifice fly to center field from senior Vanessa Iapala gave Oregon State a 1-0 edge that would prove to be the difference in the game.

The 1-0 lead was all that junior pitcher Brianne McGowan (29-7) needed to work with, as the 6-2 hurler dominated in the circle and tossed a no-hitter until a one-out single by Chloe Kloezman in the top of the fifth.

Bonds Passes Babe With Home Run No. 715

(SAN FRANCISCO) - Barry Bonds stands alone at No. 715. He hit the milestone home run with a two-run shot to center field Sunday, moving past Babe Ruth into sole possession of second place on the career list behind Hank Aaron.

Bonds homered off Colorado's Byung-Hyun Kim and in front of his home fans — where he wanted to do it all along — and before the San Francisco Giants headed on a road trip.

The ball glanced off a fan's hands about 15 rows up and then dropped onto an elevated platform beyond the fence. The souvenir sat there for a few minutes before rolling off the roof to an unidentified man waiting for a hot dog, and he was quickly ushered away by security.

Bonds circled the bases as streamers fell from the upper deck.

NO. 8 Beavers Clinch Outright Pacific-10 Baseball Title

(CORVALLIS) - Oregon State assured itself sole possession of the 2006 Pacific-10 baseball championship Friday night as the No. 8-ranked Beavers beat UCLA 9-2 at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.

Cole Gillespie was 3-for-5 with a home run, a triple, a double and three runs batted in and Dallas Buck pitched four-hit ball over seven innings for OSU (39-13 overall, 16-6 Pacific-10), which earned the outright title for the second straight season.

The Beavers and Bruins (31-23, 12-10) continue their series Saturday at 2:00 PM and conclude it Sunday at 12:30 PM. Both games can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area; on KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area, Saturday`s game can be heard live and Sunday`s game will not be broadcast.

In the clincher, Oregon State scored in every inning but the third and collected 17 hits while Buck and Kevin Gunderson limited UCLA to six. The crowd of 2,132 was a sellout but less than capacity as the threat of rain kept some fans away on a cool evening.

Riggs, Mayfield 1-2 for Coca-Cola 600

( CONCORD, N.C.) - Scott Riggs and Jeremy Mayfield made it an all-Evernham Motorsports front row Thursday by taking the top two qualifying spots for the Coca-Cola 600.

Riggs, who went out midway through qualifying, put himself on the pole with a lap of 187.865 mph. He then had to wait out the competition, which included Jimmie Johnson, winner of seven of the last 10 races at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Johnson just missed bumping him off the pole, then Riggs only had his teammate to worry about. Mayfield was the final driver to qualify, and his first lap of 187.292 was good enough for second place.

Riggs let out a sigh of relief while Mayfield, who is having a horrendous season, celebrated his near-miss.

"My teammate put a lap down that we couldn't touch," Mayfield said. "It's cool to see an Evernham front row for a change."

Pledger Earns All American Honors With Sixth Place Finish In High Jump

Symmonds Qualifies for Finals in the 800.

(LISLE, IL) - Freshman Alanna Pledger earned All-American status as she finished tied for sixth in the high jump at the NCAA Division III National Track and Field Championships at Benedictine University on Friday.

Also Friday, senior Nick Symmonds qualified for the finals of the 800 as he won his heat in a time of 1:51.42, the fourth fastest time of the day.

Symmonds, the defending champion in both the 800 and 1500 meters, will attempt to defend both those titles on Saturday.

Pledger jumped 5`5 ¾ in her first national championship appearance, finishing in a three-way tie for sixth place. The winning jump of 5`9� ¾ was recorded by Christyn Schumann of Trinity University.

Johnson Earns All-American Honor

The 4th place WOU star sets personal best in heptathlon with 5,080 points.

(EMPORIA, Kan.) - Bridget Johnson slightly bettered her personal best and earned All-American honors by placing fourth in the heptathlon today at the NCAA Division II national championships, held at Welch Stadium at Emporia State University.

Johnson tallied a total of 5,080 points, seven better than the PR that she established last year at the national championships (5,073) when she placed fifth.

TiaNiecia Mosely of Adams State won the event by a scant three points over Jessica Withrow of Abilene Christian. Mosely finished with 5,294 points to Withrow`s 5,291—edging her in the 800 meters (the day`s final event) by less than a second to take over the lead.

Forecast Calls For Scorching Indy 500

(INDIANAPOLIS) - Sunday's forecast calls for mostly slippery tires, with severe wall-wrecks possible by early afternoon and a chance of a surprise Indy 500 champion who simply set the car up perfectly for a hot day.

With temperatures forecast in the high 80's, drivers may be dealing with one of the hottest race days on record, raising blisters on the tires and peril on the track.

The Brickyard?

Come Sunday, this place could be called the Slickyard.

"It's a tough thing to guess," driver Brian Herta said Thursday, "but if I was a betting man, I'd say it's going to be very, very slick on Sunday."

To make matters worse, the month of May has been cool and wet; not only did drivers lose hours of practice time to the rain, but the laps they squeezed in were nothing like the conditions they'll face Sunday.

Oregon State Softball Has 7 Players Receive ALL-PAC-10 Academic Accolades

(WALNUT CREEK, Calif.) - For a second straight season, Oregon State University's softball team had seven student-athletes receive Pacific-10 Conference All-Academic honors, as was announced by Commissioner Tom Hansen on Thursday.

To be eligible for selection to the academic teams, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.0 overall grade-point average and be either a starter or significant contributer.

Outfielder Natalie Johnson and pitcher Amy Klever earned first team honors, while catcher Lisa Allen, utility player Ingrid Lochelt and pitcher Ta`Tyana McElroy earned second team accolades. Third baseman Sherina Galvan and utility player Cambria Miranda were named to the honorable mention team.

With the exception of Miranda, who became eligible for conference academic honors this year, the other six OSU student-athletes were all honored last season as well for their work on the field and in the classroom.