Box Score Arizona - New Mexico State Recap
TUCSON, Ariz.-- Arizona's Pac-12 honors winners showed why in helping lead Arizona (49-7) to an 11-0 victory over New Mexico State (29-24) in game two of the NCAA Softball Championships Regional here at Arizona's Hillenband Stadium.
 
Danielle O'Toole (28-4), pitcher of the year, threw three innings of shutout ball to win in three innings of work in the five-inning game. She struck out four, walked one and gave up singles to Rachel Rodriguez and Victoria Castro.
 
UA slugger Katiyana Mauga, co-player of the year, posted the first runs of the game with a record-tying home run after an infield hit by Mandie Perez in the first. Her 23rd bomb gave her 90 for her career, tying former UCLA catcher Stacey Nuveman, and moved her within five of ex-Oklahoma power hitter Lauren Chamberlain's NCAA record of 95.
 
She just missed a second home run with two outs and the bases loaded in the fourth when left fielder Rodriguez made a catch at the fence.
 
Arizona sent 11 batters to the plate in the third to blow the game open. Tamara Statman hit a two-run double to give UA a 4-0 edge and send NMSU starter Kayla Green (12-16) to the dugout, and UA's Dejah Mulipola greeted reliever Samaria Diaz with a home run to right to make it 6-0, momentarily.
 
A pair of hits by Reyna Carranco and Eva Watson put two more aboard and Mandie Perez socked her fifth home run of the year to make it 9-0. Because of an early error, four of the runs were unearned.
 
Taylor McQuillin came on in relief of O'Toole in the top of the fourth and finished the game in superb fashion, striking out the side in both innings of work.
 
The Cats added a pair of unearned runs in the fourth without benefit of a hit – two hit batsmen, two Aggies errors and a walk.
 
The Wildcats, the overall No. 2 Seed making their 31st-consecutive appearance in the tournament as the Pac-12 champion, move to the 2 p.m. game Saturday against earlier Regional winner South Carolina.
 
The Aggies, Western Athletic Conference co-champions and winner of the league's tourney, will play the first elimination game of the Regional at 4:30 p.m. against Saint Francis. NMSU is making its third NCAA appearance, all visits to Tucson.


South Carolina - Saint Francis Recap
TUCSON, Ariz. -- South Carolina's Cayla Drotar (7-4) tossed a four-hitter and her teammates roughed up Saint Francis' pitching to lead the Gamecocks to a 12-2 victory in the first game of the NCAA Softball Championships Regional here at Rita Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium Friday afternoon.
 
SC had two home runs by Mackenzie Boesel including a walk-off three-run blast in the fifth, and one each from Victoria Williams and Alyssa VanDerveer. Boesel drove in eight runs.
 
SFU, 48-10 and Northeastern Conference champion, dropped its first NCAA Championships game and saw its 21-game winning streak end. The Gamecocks (33-23), an at-large selection from the Southeastern Conference stays in the winners bracket with a fifth consecutive first-round victory.
 
The Gamecocks' Tiara Duffy was hit by a pitch from Ethel Santai (18-2) to open the first, stole second and scored on a double by Boesel. Williams made it 3-0 with a home run to deep center to chase Santai, whose last loss the first week in April. Reliever Abby Trahan walked a batter but got a foulout and a double-play ball to end the rally.
 
SC scored again in the second without a hit, and left the bases loaded when Trahan hit three batters and then walked Williams before a pop fly ended the inning.
 
VanDerveer led off the SC third with a home run to extend the lead. After a one-out single by Jordyn Augustus, Trahan hit another batter and walked Tiara Duffy with two outs to load the bases, emptied a short moment later on Boesel's grand slam. That chased Trahan in favor of Ketarah Devries, who got a fly ball to end the frame at 9-0.
 
The Red Flash picked up a pair of unearned runs in the fifth on a monstrous home run to left by Jordan Seneca. It was her 22nd of the year, second best in the country. A two-out error by shortstop Krystan White put a baserunner aboard for Seneca's blast.
 
In the fifth a pair of singles put two aboard for Boesel's game-ending, run-rule shot.
 
SC will play the winner of game two (New Mexico State against host Arizona) in game three Saturday at 2 p.m. Saint Francis plays the loser of the NMSU-Arizona game at 4:30 p.m.