March 1, 2003

Complete Tournament Coverage

TUCSON - Arizona stayed unbeaten at 3-0 in its own Hillenbrand Invitational softball tournament with an 11-0 five-inning victory over San Diego State. It was the Aztecs' first loss in four games at the tourney and the two teams will play again at noon Sunday as the top two clubs in the field.

San Diego State got a single from Joann Figueroa and infield hits from Janna Kovensky and Jacque Vaca to load the bases with two outs in the top of the first, but UA pitcher Alicia Hollowell got Amber Grahlman to pop up to end the threat.

UA answered with chop hits from Autumn Champion and Courtney Fossatti and a walk by Lovie Jung to load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the inning. Champion scored when the catcher threw the ball away at third on a failed pickoff attempt, allowing all runners to move up. Mackenzie Vandergeest his a sacrifice fly to bring in a second run.

A grand slam punctuated UA's nine-run second inning. Lisha Ribellia reached second on a throwing error and moved to third on Crystal Farley's single. Champion singled in Ribellia, then Fossatti hit an infield single to put three runners on. Jung socked her 11th home run and third grand slam of the year to make it 7-0. Ribellia and Farley added two-run singles, all unearned runs due to three SDSU errors in the inning.

Shortstop Jung made two fine fielding plays in the fourth, diving for a bloop liner at the foul line for one out, then backhanding a bouncer deep in the hole and one-hopping a long throw to first to beat the runner.