The Cal softball team’s season came to an end Sunday as Ailana Agbayani and Kasidi Pickering each belted three-run home runs and three pitchers combined on a two-hitter to lead second-seeded Oklahoma to a 12-1 win in five innings in the Norman Regional final.

The Sooners are seeking their fifth straight national championship.

Agbayani’s blast capped a four-run second inning and was the second of four home runs for the Sooners (48-7). Pickering’s homer in the eight-run fourth inning gave her 101 RBIs for the season.

Agbayani, Pickering and three other Oklahoma players each had two hits.

Miranda De Nava (13-6) took the loss for the Golden Bears (37-21), who lost 11-2 to the Sooners on Saturday. Lagi Quiroga scored Cal’s lone run, as she raced around the bases in the second inning after a Mia Phillips base hit was followed by a Sooners throwing error.

Oklahoma will host a Super Regional next weekend, facing Alabama in the best-of-3 series.

Stanford lost for the first time in the Eugene Regional final, as host Oregon beat the Cardinal 15-5 in six innings to force a second game in the double elimination tournament, which ended after this newspaper went to press.

The Cardinal trailed 7-3 after two innings but cut the Ducks’ lead to two to with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Oregon, though, answered with five runs in the top of the fifth, a rally that included Kedre Luschar’s three-run homer to center for a 10-5 Ducks lead.

Allie Clements had two RBIs for Stanford, including a solo home run in the second inning.

MOTORSPORTS

A rookie driver for a brand new team won the pole for the Indianapolis 500 on a strange day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Team Penske was disqualified before the final two rounds of qualifying.

Robert Shwartzman, a 25-year-old with dual nationality in Israel and Russia, became the first Indy 500 rookie to qualify on the pole since 1983 when he did it for Prema Racing.

The last rookie to qualify on the Indy 500 pole was Teo Fabi. Coincidentally, he was an Italian — just like Prema, which also was founded in ’83. Prema is established in Europe and races in the Formula 2 series.

Shwartzman initially raced under the Russian flag until the start of the war with Ukraine. He now races under the Israeli flag, which makes the Tel Aviv native the first driver from Israel to make “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

Scott McLaughlin crashed during qualifying, Will Power and defending champion Josef Newgarden and failed inspection, and the three Team Penske drivers who swept the front row for last year’s 500 will now start in the fourth row.

Christopher Bell passed Joey Logano with nine laps remaining and cruised to victory in an action-packed NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday night.

In a slam-bang affair that set a record for lead changes, Bell won by 0.829 seconds over Logano to earn his first All-Star Race victory. Ross Chastain finished third, followed by Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott.

Logano elected to stay on track rather than pit during the final yellow. The decision was costly as he tried to hold off Bell, who had pitted for two fresh tires.

The field was bunched for the final time on Lap 216 with the “ Promoter’s Caution,” thrown by two-time Daytona 500 winner and Fox Sports personality Michael Waltrip, who dropped the yellow flag on the track. The gimmick to guarantee a late restart was a sidebar to an eventful race.

After lackluster showings in the first two outings on the 0.625-mile oval (including Logano leading 199 of 200 laps to win last year ), the All-Star Race delivered much more action in its third year at North Wilkesboro Speedway. There were 17 lead changes, breaking the mark of 13 (set in 2016) for the most in the event’s 41-year history.

Pole-sitter Brad Keselowski and Logano traded the lead twice in the first 10 laps and often ran side by side for the lead. There were six leaders and 10 lead changes in the first half of the race, which topped the total number of leaders (four) and lead changes (five) in the past two All-Star Races combined.

Max Verstappen ended Oscar Piastri’s three-race win streak and gave his Formula 1 title defense a big boost with a victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday after a daring overtake on Piastri at the start.

Piastri and his teammate Lando Norris — whose McLaren car has been the one to beat so far this season — had no real answer to the pace of Verstappen’s Red Bull after that, as Verstappen held on for his second win of the season, finishing ahead of Norris, who overtook Piastri for second with five laps remaining.

TENNIS

Carlos Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner 7-6 (5), 6-1, to win his first Italian Open on Sunday in Rome. Since the start of last year, Alcaraz is the only player to beat Sinner more than once and now he’s done it four straight times.

Alcaraz’s victory before Sinner’s home fans at the Foro Italico snapped the Italian’s 26-match winning streak, which stretched back to October — when Alcaraz beat him in the China Open final in a third-set tiebreaker. It was Sinner’s first tournament back after a three-month doping ban.

HOCKEY

Led by Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky, the United States secured its place in the quarterfinals of the men’s IIHF World Championship with a 6-1 rout of Kazakhstan on Sunday in Herning, Denmark.

The Americans are tied with the Czech Republic on 14 points in Group B, trailing leader Switzerland (16).