Colleges

Softball crown to Arizona

By TIMES WIRES
Published June 7, 2006

OKLAHOMA CITY - Alicia Hollowell threw her third straight shutout and set the Women's College World Series record for strikeouts in a 5-0 win over Northwestern on Tuesday that gave Arizona the title with a two-game sweep, the Wildcats' seventh title.

Caitlin Lowe had two hits and scored twice, and Autumn Champion and Callista Balko drove in two runs each to give Arizona (54-11) plenty of support for Hollowell (32-5). She struck out 13 to pass UCLA's Debbie Doom for the most strikeouts. She finished with 64 in six games, two more than Doom had in 1982.

St. Petersburg College coach Dave Pano, whose team won a state junior college championship and was national runnerup in 2005, submitted his name for baseball coach at USF. Pano, 46, has a 320-144-1 record in nine seasons at St. Petersburg and manages a rookie-level minor-league team for the Toronto Blue Jays in the summer. He is the fourth state coach in the past week to express an interest in succeeding Eddie Cardieri, joining USF pitching coach Nelson North, University of Tampa coach Joe Urso and Florida State associate coach Jamey Shouppe.

Miami Washington's Alwan Lee, one of two quarterbacks to sign with USF in February, said he plans to attend Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College in Perkinston because of academic problems. Lee said an entrance exam score wasn't accepted by the NCAA.

The Oxford Super Regional showdown between host Mississippi and Miami will begin with a 7 p.m. game Saturday. The best-of-three series will be televised on ESPN2 or ESPNU.

[Last modified June 7, 2006, 02:00:17]