DENVER — Saint Leo won its first team national championship in any sport Saturday when its men's golf team captured the Division II title Saturday. The Lions downed Chico State of California 3-2 in the match play final.
"To be the first in school history is just unbelievable," Lions coach Chris Greenwood said. "It didn't look like much was bothering them. They just kept playing."
The match came down to the final pairing of Griffin Clark of Saint Leo against Kelley Sullivan. Clark parred No. 18 to clinch a three-stroke victory.
"I was glad to be the anchor, I was glad to be the one to finish it off," sophomore Clark said. "I kind of got a sense that it was going to come down to me."
Freshman Hugo Bernard, who on Thursday won the stroke play medal for Saint Leo's first individual national championship in any sport, won his match by seven strokes Saturday, as did Plant High graduate Ryan Gendron.
The Pasco County university had a chance to win two national titles in one day, but its men's tennis team fell 5-3 to Hawaii Pacific in the final, also in Denver.
USF softball ousted; FSU, UF stay perfect
USF was eliminated in the Division I softball Tallahassee Region, falling 6-0 to South Carolina shortly after staying alive with a 6-4 victory over Florida A&M. Outfielder Astin Donovan was 2-for-3 with two runs, two RBIs and a home run for the Bulls (45-16) against FAMU. Against the Gamecocks, USF was held to four hits and committed six errors.
Host Florida State, seeded eighth, topped South Carolina 4-0 earlier, sending the Gamecocks to the loser's bracket in the four-team double-elimination region. Former Alonso High standout Jessica Warren was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI for the Seminoles and Jessica Burroughs, who pitched a no-hitter Friday against FAMU, got the win with three innings of one-hit relief. South Carolina (38-22) must beat the Seminoles (50-8) twice today (Game 1 starts at noon) to reach next weekend's 16-team, best-of-three Super Region round.
Host and top seed Florida, the two-time defending national champion, stayed unbeaten in the Gainesville Region by defeating UCF 5-0. Catcher Aubree Munro had two hits and two RBIs for the Gators (55-5). The Knights (38-21) bounced back by beating Florida Atlantic 2-1 to set up today's noon game against UF. UCF must win twice to advance.
Women's golf: FSU (290) was 13th at 9-over 585 and UF (293) and Miami (291) were tied for 17th at 590 after two rounds of the NCAA tournament in Eugene, Ore. UM's Dewi Webber (66—135) topped the individual event. The top eight teams advance to the match play quarterfinals.
Baseball: Jackson Lueck was 5-for-8 in a doubleheader against visiting Miami and ended the second game with a walkoff homer as FSU (34-19, 16-10 ACC), ranked 11th in the writers' poll, earned a split with a 3-2 victory. The No. 4 Hurricanes (43-10, 21-7) won the opener 8-5. … No. 1 UF beat host LSU 6-2 to clinch the fourth seed in next week's SEC tournament. LSU won 7-3 in the completion of a game suspended Thursday. The Gators (44-11, 19-10 SEC) play Wednesday against LSU or Tennessee. … Host Tampa was eliminated from the Division II South Region tourney with a 4-3 loss to West Georgia.