March 2, 2003

Box Score

TUCSON - Freshman pitcher Alicia Hollowell threw a two-hit shutout and Arizona made the most of nine hits to beat San Diego State, 6-0, in the final game of Arizona's Hillenbrand Invitational softball tournament.

UA jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a single by Autumn Champion and a home run by Mackenzie Vandergeest in the bottom of the first.

Wendy Allen blooped a double to drive in two runs in the third, then Lisha Ribellia followed a Shelly Shultz walk with another two-run double to make it 6-0.

San Diego State loaded the bases in the fourth but came away scoreless. Arizona stranded three runners in the fifth and sixth but couldn't get a key hit to blow the game open.

Hollowell improved to 12-2 and losing pitcher Celena Velasquez is 3-2.

Arizona (21-2) finished 4-0 in the tournament, while San Diego State (12-8) finished 3-2 in the matchup of the top records in the round-robin format.

The Wildcats did not allow a run in its four games and blasted 12 home runs.

In the preliminary game early Sunday, Northern Iowa beat New Mexico State 3-1 in morning action The Panthers (8-6) finished 2-2 in the tournament. NMSU (2-20) finished 0-5.

UNI took a 1-0 lead in the first with a walk, a sacrifice and two errors by NMSU, then added to the lead in the second with a two-run home run by Angela Higgins.

Christine Stephens hit a two-out solo home run for New Mexico State to cut the lead to 3-1 in the top of the fourth