FILE PHOTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat Two-time National Softball Player of the Year Jennie Finch will have her Jersey retired during a ceremony at Hillenbrand Stadium on May 9th before Arizona takes on UCLA.

UA to retire Finch's jersey

On Friday, May 9, the University of Arizona Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Arizona Softball program will retire the jersey worn by two-time National Player of the Year Jennie Finch.

The ceremony will take place at approximately 6:45 p.m., right before the Arizona vs. UCLA softball game. Game time is approximately 7:00 p.m. Finch, a current volunteer coach for the team, will also throw out the first pitch.

Football winds up spring ball in impressive fashion

The University of Arizona football team held its third and final spring scrimmage at Arizona Stadium Friday afternoon. The scrimmage, which was highlighted by the offense's six touchdown passes and the defense's nine sacks, consisted of nearly 80 plays.

"We got a lot of work done today," Mackovic said. "The defense came out and did a terrific job with the run and pass defense. Then, the offense picked things up, and the key for us today was being able to throw as much and as well as we did."

Quarterbacks Ryan O'Hara and John Rattay split most of the duty in today's scrimmage. O'Hara led the offensive attack with four touchdown passes, and he completed 10-of-11 passes for 187 yards, with his lone incompletion coming on the last play of the scrimmage. Rattay completed 7-of-13 passes for 89 yards and had two touchdowns and a dropped pass. O'Hara had touchdown passes of 50, 45, 27 and nine yards, while Rattay threw touchdown passes of five and 26 yards.

"Nic (Costa) hit his finger yesterday, so he didn't play very much today," Mackovic said. "John (Rattay) and Ryan (O'Hara) both did a good job, and they threw very well. They did a good job of finding some different people, and they picked up the receivers and made some throws underneath. We have tried to teach the quarterbacks how to stay alive in the pocket, and they did a nice job today. They were much improved in that regard."

The quarterbacks combined to hit 10 different receivers. O'Hara led the quarterbacks with the longest pass of the day, as he hit Andrae Thurman for a 50-yard touchdown strike.

Senior wide receiver Andrae Thurman led all receivers with five receptions for 115 yards and two touchdowns. Redshirt freshman Mike Jefferson had two catches for 70 yards and a touchdown. Junior Ricky Williams had two receptions for 30 yards, and he caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from Rattay near the end of the scrimmage. Senior Lance Relford caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from O'Hara, and he finished the day with two catches for 15 yards. Sophomore fullback Gilbert Harris had two catches for 15 yards and a touchdown.

The Wildcat receiving corps only had one dropped pass, an improvement from nine dropped balls in the first spring scrimmage two weeks ago.

Sophomore running back Mike Bell led all rushers with seven carries for 28 yards, an average of four yards per carry. Junior halfback Chris Harris finished with 11 carries for 11 yards, while Beau Carr had seven totes for six yards.

Arizona's defense sacked the Wildcat quarterbacks a combined nine times, which matched the defense's best sack total from the first spring scrimmage. Redshirt freshman defensive end Paul Philipp led the team with three sacks, while sophomores Brad Brittain and Marcus Smith each contributed two sacks.

The Wildcat defense also tallied seven tackles for loss on the day.

"Defensively, the outside linebacker corps made a lot of good plays today, and the defensive backs like Gary Shepard and Gary Love made some big plays," Mackovic added.

Arizona has three practices remaining on the spring schedule. The Wildcats will practice on Monday, April 21, at 4:30 p.m., and Tuesday, April 22, at 4:30 p.m. The team will conclude sessions with the final practice on Thursday, April 24.