Morning Briefing March 28, 2010

Winless for two years, Ernie Els put himself in position Saturday for his second straight victory.

Els made sure the last two holes did not unravel a solid day of work at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla. He made a 10-foot putt to save par on the 18th hole for a 3-under 69, giving him a one-shot lead over Ben Curtis in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Two weeks after his four-shot victory at Doral that ended the longest drought of his career, Els broke 70 for the third straight round at Bay Hill and was at 10-under 206.

Hee Kyung Seo shot a 3-under 69 to widen her lead to five strokes after three rounds of the LPGA’s Kia Classic at Carlsbad, Calif.

Corey Pavin shot a course-record 63 to take the lead after two rounds at the Champions Tour’s Cap Cana (Dominican Republic) Championship.

Pavin had nine birdies in his bogey-free round and is at 13-under 131 at the Punta Espada Golf Club. He broke Bernhard Langer’s 2009 record of 64 to take a one-shot lead over Nick Price (66) and a two-shot margin over former Masters champions Fred Couples (66) and Larry Mize (66).

Auto Racing

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin will have arthroscopic surgery on Monday to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, but isn’t planning to miss any races.

Hamlin injured the knee playing basketball in January and originally thought he would be able to wait until after the season for the surgery.

Will Power had the best lap time in the final round of qualifying by more than a quarter-second over Tony Kanaan and will be on the pole for today’s IndyCar Honda Grand Prix (12:30 p.m., KXLY) at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Scott Dixon will start third, on the inside of Justin Wilson. Row 3 will have Helio Castroneves and Marco Andretti.

Baseball

Ian Snell pitched six innings for Seattle, surrendering three runs and four hits and the Mariners fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 in preseason play at Glendale, Ariz.

Seattle’s Matt Tuiasosopo homered in the ninth.

Football

Arizona Cardinals linebacker Joey Porter was arrested in Bakersfield, Calif., on suspicion of drunken driving and accused of assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.

Basketball

Donnelle Booker scored 13 points, Austin Swift added 12 points and six rebounds, and Cal Poly Pomona (28-6) won its first NCAA Division II championship with a 65-53 victory over Indiana (Pa.) (33-3) at Springfield, Mass.

Miscellaneous

Oregon named the university’s former vice president for student affairs as interim athletics director while the search for Mike Bellotti’s replacement is conducted.

Lorraine Davis will serve on a month-to-month basis starting April 20. She retired in 2006 but has worked part time at Oregon, overseeing academic support services for student-athletes, among other duties.

— The Associated Press