Baseball
Big seventh inning leads Beavers to win — The Oregon State baseball team sent nine batters to the plate in a five-run seventh inning that helped the Beavers to a 8-1 win over San Diego State Thursday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium in San Diego. Max Gordon, Tyler Smith and Danny Hayes all drove in runs during in the seventh inning, which saw the Beavers accumulate five hits after tallying just two in six innings against SDSU starter Michael Cederoth. The Beavers, though, held a 2-1 lead entering the inning due to sacrifice flies by both Michael Conforto and Jake Rodriguez in the third and sixth innings, respectively. Oregon State and San Diego State continue their series tonight at 6 o’clock.
Motor sports
Harvick, Kyle Busch win Daytona Duels — Kyle Busch won the second of Daytona’s twin qualifying races by holding off a late challenge from Kasey Kahne. Busch will join Kevin Harvick in the second row of the season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday. The two earned their starting spots by winning their respective 150-mile Budweiser Duel race on Thursday. Kahne finished second behind Busch after failing to get close enough to attempt a race-winning pass. Third went to Austin Dillon, who earned a spot in his first Daytona 500. Harvick won the first duel to make it two for two at Speedweeks. He also won last weekend’s exhibition race. The starting lineup for the Daytona 500 is set by the results of Thursday’s races. Danica Patrick will be on the pole for the race.
Soccer
Timbers sign midfielder — The Timbers have signed midfielder Michael Nanchoff, adding another player who played for new Portland coach Caleb Porter at the University of Akron. Last week, the Timbers acquired former Akron midfielder Ben Zemanski from Chivas USA. Portland midfielder Darlington Nagbe also played for the Zips. Nanchoff played the past two seasons with the Vancouver Whitecaps. He was selected with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft. The Timbers on Thursday also announced that they have acquired second-round picks in both the 2014 and 2015 MLS SuperDraft from the Whitecaps in exchange for the first right of refusal to English midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker.
— From wire reports
