Fresno

UC Irvine All-American candidate Matt Summers will be the starting pitcher when the Anteaters open NCAA Regional play Friday against Fresno State at 2 p.m., UCI Coach Mike Gillespie said Tuesday. Gillespie said determining who would start subsequent games in the four-team, double-elimination Los Angeles Regional that also includes UCLA and San Francisco, would be decided later, based upon the opponent. Summers, a junior right-hander who threw a no-hitter in his final regular-season start, was named Big West Conference Pitcher of the Year on Monday.

It didn't take UC Irvine senior Brian Hernandez long to identify the potential for revenge associated with the Anteaters' placement in the NCAA Los Angeles Regional hosted by UCLA was announced Monday morning. Hernandez, the baseball team's star third baseman and closer, noticed quickly that by winning the four-team regional that also includes Fresno State (40-14) and San Francisco, UCI (39-16) could get a crack at Virginia, the No. 1 national seed, in the subsequent super regionals.

MEN'S TENNIS Fresno Pacific 6, Vanguard 1 MOBILE, Ala. — The Lions' season ended in the NAIA Tournament quarterfinal match Thursday. Vanguard's Yahor Kryvaruchka and Samdro Bucher won the Lions' lone set, defeating Fresno Pacific's Cledson Carvalho and Jaime Canamares, 8-4, at No. 2 doubles. But top-seeded Fresno Pacific (23-2) won the other two doubles sets, earning the point, and clinched the match after winning the first five singles sets. Vanguard, which was unseeded but upset No. 8 Xavier (La.)

A luxury car company runs commercials urging consumers to buy its product and make it a "December to Remember. " This week, Corona del Mar High cross country coach Bill Sumner talked about the Sea Kings making it a "November to Remember. " The Sea Kings usually do just that at the CIF State Meet. Corona del Mar's girls' team is going for its third straight CIF State Division III title this morning at Woodward Park in Fresno. CdM's girls, who finished third at the CIF Southern Section Division III finals Nov. 20 at Mt. San Antonio College, have won four of the last five state titles.

Collin Woods, the Arizona 5A-II Division Player of the Year last season who is ranked No. 48 among high school point guards by ESPN.Com, picked UC Irvine in the November signing period for men's basketball. The 6-foot-2 Woods averaged 17.5 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.0 steals per game last season at Horizon High in Scottsdale. He chose UCI over Air Force, Arizona State, Colorado, Colorado State, San Diego State, Fresno State and UTEP. Another early signee for the Anteaters is 7-0 center Thanos Thodos from Greece.

Alex Abalos learned as a kid to keep moving those wheels as the running back if he wanted to progress. As a teenager, Abalos left Fresno and went to Costa Mesa for another chance to move his legs on a football field, for a chance to change his life. Grades and gangs battered Abalos off the field in his freshman year at a high school in Fresno. In trouble, Abalos said his mother, Maria Cuenca, called her sister in Costa Mesa for a change of scenery for her son. Once Monica Cuenca agreed to take in the nephew before his sophomore year, off he went.

The NCAA baseball tournament selection committee didn’t seem to do any favors for UC Irvine, the nation’s top-ranked team. But that doesn’t appear to be much of a concern for the Anteaters, the Big West Conference champions playing in their first regional at home. “The team’s excited to host a regional,” UC Irvine pitcher Danny Bibona said. “We’ve gone on the road for the past few years for the postseason so we’re excited to be at home and to be playing in front of our fans.

PASADENA — Feather River College provided a soft landing for Orange Coast, which swept the Golden Eagles to stave off elimination on the opening day of the California Community College Athletic Assn. state women’s volleyball tournament Friday at Pasadena City College. The Pirates’ commanding 25-17, 25-13, 25-12 triumph began just 35 minutes after OCC (21-5), the No. 1 seed from Southern California, dropped an 11-25, 25-23, 25-19, 22-25, 15-10 decision to Fresno City (26-5)

The Orange Coast College women’s volleyball team, fresh off an upset of the top-ranked team in the state in the Southern California Regional playoffs Saturday night, is the No. 1 seed from SoCal and will meet Fresno City College in the opening round of the eight-team, double-elimination state tournament Friday at Pasadena City College. The Pirates (20-4), who have won six straight and eight of their last nine, finished third in the rugged Orange Empire Conference and were ranked No. 11 in the final regular-season state poll.

WALNUT — Out of Estancia, Corona del Mar, Newport Harbor and Sage Hill School, only one high school boys’ cross country runner is going to state. Say hi to Lion Wintemute. He’s a junior at Sage Hill. Wintemute qualified after finishing in 11th place in 16 minutes, 27 seconds in the CIF Southern Section Division V championships at Mt. San Antonio College Saturday. The Sea Kings, Sailors and Lightning each advanced teams to state out of their respective section divisions last year.