EVAN CARAVELLI/Arizona Daily Wildcat UA senior catcher Mackenzie Vandergeest discusses the season's prospects with coach Nancy Evans at the women's softball media day in January at Hillenbrand Stadium.

Arizona softball acting associate head coach Nancy Evans may be one of the few hoping the UA's first game of its weekend tournament starts late.

Evans will throw out the first pitch of the Colorado Rockies' first Spring Training game against the Chicago White Sox tomorrow as part of "Women in Sports Day." Evans will throw out the pitch before the 1:05 p.m. game at Hi Corbett Field, the Spring Training home of the Rockies and home of the new Arizona Heat major league softball team, which Evans plays for.

"It's a little promotional event and it's a big day, so it'll be fun," Evans said.

The day will feature a pre-game ceremony celebrating past UA athletes and Tucson Vice Mayor Fred Ronstadt will stand in against Evans.

The Heat said it was not sure who was coming, but it has invited the handful of former UA players it has signed so far.

Arizona's (21-0) opening game of the Hillenbrand Invitational against Northern Iowa is scheduled to start at 3 p.m., so Evans, also the UA's pitching coach, will cut it a little close.

"Either way, it doesn't matter," said Evans, laughing.

Tickets for the game are half-price, other than the $2 Sandpile tickets, and can be bought at the ticket office by calling 327-WINS (9467) or online at coloradorockies.com.

Hollowell makes it back-to-back POW awards

Sophomore Alicia Hollowell seems to have come up with the perfect recipe for winning the Pac-10 pitcher of the week: giving up runs.

A couple weekends ago, Hollowell (14-0) gave up her first runs of the season and earned Pacific 10 Conference Pitcher of the Week. She earned it again after giving up five earned runs in a 7-5 win over No. 10 Stanford.

Hollowell only gave up six earned runs the whole weekend, however, walking just three over 21 innings and recording 38 strikeouts.

"I think it's awesome. She's been working hard and she's really excited about helping the team out, and the team helps her out by giving her offense," Evans said. "Whenever one of our players gets an honor, it's really exciting and I couldn't be prouder for them."

Against Oklahoma State, Hollowell was one hit away from a perfect game, facing only 22 batters in the seven-inning game while striking out 17, one shy of her career high. On the season, Hollowell has a 0.71 ERA, striking out 179 over 88.1 innings.

The award is the third straight week the Wildcats have won one of the weekly awards, with senior utility player Wendy Allen and left fielder Autumn Champion also winning the Pac-10 Player of the Week honor. This is Arizona's 86th weekly award and Hollowell's seventh.

And then there were two·

No. 4 California's two losses to No. 17 Nebraska last weekend dropped the Golden Bears from the ranks of the Division I unbeatens, leaving only Arizona and UCLA.

Like the UA, UCLA (16-0) swept a home tournament, beating unranked UC Santa Barbara twice and unranked Long Beach State.

Fast start moving up the charts

Arizona's 21-game winning streak to open the season puts the Wildcats in position to challenge their best start ever.

The UA's best start is 31-0 in 2001 and 1994. The team also had a 30-0 start in 1997, all in national title years. Arizona's most consecutive wins came in another national championship season: 47 from 1996-1997.

Arizona gets a little bit of a break in its schedule, as No. 24 Georgia Tech is the only ranked team the Wildcats face until the end of spring break, a span of eight games.

UCLA continues to hold off UA in rankings

Depending on which poll you're talking about, Arizona is either gaining ground or losing it to the Bruins.

In the USA Today/National Pro Fastpitch Coaches Association poll, the No. 2 Wildcats lost a first place vote to UCLA (16-0) and fell 23 points behind, down from 21 the week before.

In the espn.com/USA Softball poll, Arizona gained two first place votes and moved 15 points closer to the top-ranked Bruins.

Bat Cats swing for the fences

Last week, the Arizona Athletics workers responsible for throwing out t-shirts for each UA run literally ran out in the team's 17-1 win over Boston University.

Against the Terriers, the UA set a school record with seven home runs, including two by senior catcher Mackenzie Vandergeest and freshman shortstop Kristie Fox.

Vandergeest has 52 home runs, tied with Leticia Pineda for fourth on the UA career chart. With 39, junior Jackie Coburn is one shy of 10th and six shy of sixth.

USA, Finch continue to roll

Former Wildcat Jennie Finch gave up a couple hits this weekend as she and the USA Olympic team continued their success on the Aiming for Athens tour.

Until she gave up two hits to No. 8 Georgia, Finch had only allowed a bunt single. Finch, 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA, has combined for two no-hitters and is leading the team in strikeouts.

Team USA (10-0) has outscored opponents 106-6 thus far, including a win over Army, when the red, white and blue treated the Cadets like they were the Iraqi army, winning 28-0.

The other former UA players playing for USA and UA head coach Mike Candrea again are second baseman Lovie Jung, hitting .269, outfielder Nicole Giordano, hitting .375, and first baseman/outfielder Leah O'Brien-Amico, hitting .400.