California Wins Softball Title, 6-0

California had a quiet confidence and Jocelyn Forest, which was enough to defeat tradition-laden Arizona in the NCAA softball championship game at Oklahoma City.

Forest threw a one-hitter, and California scored six runs in the seventh inning against ace Jennie Finch to defeat the Wildcats, 6-0, Monday.

“We came out here wanting to play. Just being here wasn’t good enough for us,” said Forest, the tournament’s outstanding player.

“We proved a point. People underestimate us all the time and we’re definitely the underdogs. Nobody ever believes in us,” she said. “The only people that have ever believed in us is ourselves, and we came out here and did the job.”

The Golden Bears (56-19), who wrapped up their fourth consecutive appearance in the Women’s College World Series, had never won more than two games in any of their six appearances. Arizona (55-12) has six NCAA championships and has been to the title game 10 times.

But California had won two of three from the Wildcats during the regular season, and that confidence carried over.

Finch (34-6), the player of the year in 2001 when she had a 32-0 record and Arizona won the title, retired the first two batters in the seventh before Kaleo Eldredge walked. Kristen Morley followed with a single, then Candace Harper singled up the middle to make it 1-0.

After an intentional walk to Veronica Nelson loaded the bases, Finch walked in a run before giving up a bases-clearing double to Jessica Pamanian.

Finch was replaced by Jenny Gladding, who gave up a double to Chelsea Spencer that finished the scoring.

Forest (29-12) struck out eight and walked three.

Lacrosse

Michael Powell had four goals and three assists, and Syracuse avenged a loss in last year’s title game by defeating defending-champion Princeton, 13-12, to win the NCAA lacrosse championship at Piscataway, N.J.

Brian Solliday had three goals and an assist, and defender Sol Bliss made two key plays late in the fourth quarter to help Syracuse (15-2) win its seventh title and second in three years.

Sean Hartofilis had three goals for Princeton (10-5).

Running

Nazario Romero of San Marcos was the men’s winner and Jeanne Lasee-Johnson of Chula Vista finished first among the women in the FloJo Half-Marathon and 5K at Laguna Hills.

Romero finished in 1 hour 9 minutes 1 second, defeating Gray Mavhera of Riverside by one second, and Lasee-Johnson finished in 1:20:45. Romero and Lasee-Johnson each received $250.

Sharlene Wills, who is blind and ran with friend Jonathan Geller, finished in an estimated 2:52:00. She ran with her guide dog, Shyla, in last year’s race.

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Deena Drossin defended her title and led the United States women to the team championship in the 24th Bolder Boulder 10-kilometer road race in Colorado.

Tom Nyariki held off American Alan Culpepper to help Kenya claim the men’s team title.