Loyola Marymount

CROSS COUNTRY Asics/UCI Invitational IRVINE — The UC Irvine women’s cross country team, led by senior Laura Olvera’s first-place finish, won the title of the Asics/UCI Invitational for the second straight year at the Anteater Recreation Center Fields Saturday. UCI, in its season opener, finished with 51 points, followed by UCLA (84) and Loyola Marymount (109) in the 14-team race. Olvera covered the 5,000-meter course in 17 minutes, 24 seconds.

RIVERSIDE — There has been little sense of security for the UC Irvine baseball team in recent weeks. If it’s not shaky defense that has kept Anteaters Coach Mike Gillespie on edge, it has been a listless offense and/or a less-than-reliable middle relief corps. So, when it came to securing a nonconference victory Tuesday night at UC Riverside, Gillespie wasn’t about to apologize for parlaying, among other things, some key bloop singles, a freshman walk-on reliever, and even a hidden-ball trick, into a 10-4 triumph.

IRVINE — Loyola Marymount Coach Frank Cruz demanded that his players show at least one stripe on their stirrups Tuesday, not realizing they’d show a few more in a commanding 11-3 nonconference win over host UC Irvine. The Lions, who came in on a three-game losing streak, had lost five of their last six and seven of their last nine. But, forced to comply with a uniform code that Cruz had let slide until this point, they produced 17 hits, the most this season against a UCI staff that came in second in the nation in earned-run average (2.84)

TODAY Golf High school boys – Estancia, Costa Mesa at Orange Coast League finals, at Costa Mesa Country Club, noon Lacrosse High school girls – Corona del Mar at Beckman, 5 p.m.; Irvine at Sage Hill, 4 p.m. Tennis High school boys – Laguna Hills at Corona del Mar, 3:15 p.m.; Marina at Newport Harbor, 3 p.m. Track and field High school boys...

IRVINE — UC Irvine had already clinched a Big West Conference women’s tennis victory over UC Santa Barbara, but that didn’t stop Gauchos freshman Jill Damion from going all out to get a win Saturday at UCI. Damion, a former Corona del Mar High standout, came up short against UCI senior Inna Agababian, yet assuredly made the Anteater work for it. In the final match of the day, Agababian defeated Damion, 6-4, 6-7, 14-12, at...