Alicia Kay Hollowell (born February 29, 1984) is a former All-American athlete who was born in Suisun, California and attended Fairfield High School from 1998 to 2002; her parents are Doug and Suzanne Hollowell, and her siblings are Doug Jr., Bryan, Erica and Caroline. She pitched for the University of Arizona Wildcats from 2003 to 2006, collecting 144 career wins (the fourth most in NCAA Division I history) and 1,768 strikeouts (the fifth most in NCAA Division I history). She currently holds the University of Arizona Wildcats records for career wins and career strikeouts, and once held the NCAA Softball World Series strikeout record, and won the 2006 NCAA Softball World Series title. She was drafted by Arizona Heat in the National Pro Fastpitch but went on to play for the Akron Racers in the 2007 season, leading them to the championship series before serving as an alternate for the Olympic softball team in 2008.
| “ | ...there have been a lot of strikeout pitchers for the Wildcats but she is the best among the best. | ” |
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Alicia holds the national high school record for most strikeouts in a single game with 61 in a 30-inning game against Woodland High School that started on May 25, was suspended, then concluded four days later on May 29; she took 364 pitches to accomplish the feat, five more than opposing pitcher Kelly Anderson, and gave up just 10 hits. (Her performance bettered DeeDee Weiman's previous record of 53 strikeouts in a 29-inning game between Cerritos Gahr High School and Lakewood St. Joseph High School in 1986; in that same game, Lisa Fernandez struck out 48 batters (the fourth best high school outing) for Lakewood.)
Hollowell also holds the Fairfield High School records for strikeouts in a career and strikeouts in a season. She earned the MVP Award all four years of her high school career, as well as first-team all-state honors and first-team all-conference honors. She was also named the Gatorade State Player of the Year for 2001–2002, the Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year for 2002, and the State Player of the Year for 2002.
Finally, for Hollowell's career she currently ranks top five with national high school records in strikeouts (2,238, first place tally); season strikeouts (641 & 636 in 2000 and 2001); perfect games (14); no-hitters (43); shutouts (111) and ERA (0.08).
Hollowell pitched two no-hitters in her opening season; one against Wisconsin, and one against Oregon State. Hollowell led the team to a No. 1 seed at the World Series with her 38-3 win-loss record.
In her debut at the Women's College World Series, Hollowell pitched all of Arizona's games and left with a 2-2 record, falling in the semifinals. In game three against Cal Berkeley she struck out 17 in the 3-2 loss, her best showing at the WCWS until 2006. Hollowell was also a WCWS All-Tournament Team honoree.
Her season total of 394 strikeouts topped the school record of 366, set by Jennie Finch the previous season; her total of 40 wins also broke Nancy Evans' previous school rookie record of 36 and was the best record nationally in 2003.
Holowell threw three no-hitters, including one perfect game, in her second season, and broke her own school records for strikeouts—with 508—and wins—with 41; in her perfect game, a 6–0 win over Indiana on March 6, she struck out 20 (career high) of 21 batters she faced to break Finch's single-game school record of 19 strikeouts from April 17, 2002. In doing so, she also set the NCAA second-most strikeout record for a regulation game.
The perfect game was just the third in University of Arizona history, and the first since April 18, 1993; Hollowell was also only the second pitcher in UA history to throw a perfect game, as the preceding two had both been pitched by Susie Parra, in 1992 and `93.
Alicia would be the second of two top 5 strikeout pitchers in NCAA history to face Team USA and later be added to the prestigious roster. During the Aiming for Athens tour, Arizona and Hollowell lost their March 26, 2004 game 6–1, but she did manage to strike out five in the contest.
Alicia earned Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week honors five times, for the weeks of February 17 to February 23, February 24 to March 1, March 2 to March 8, March 16 to March 22, and May 11 to May 16.
Hollowell threw eight no-hitters, including four perfect games, in her first 15 starts of the 2005 season. She also passed Jennie Finch's school record of 1,028 career strikeouts in a 1-0 win over Baylor University on February 27. On April 2, she won her 100th career game in a 4-2 victory over the University of California; she won her 110th career game in an 8-inning 2–1 victory over Oklahoma State University on May 22, tying Jenny Voss for 12th place on the all-time NCAA Division I career wins list.
Arizona and Hollowell made it back to the World Series but a title remained elusive. In game three, Cat Osterman and the Texas Longhorns waged an epic 11-inning game where Hollowell was brought in to relieve starter Leslie Wolfe and the two combined for 30 strikeouts (a new WCWS record for combination K's) before Arizona was sent home; Tracy Compton and Lisa Ishikawa of UCLA and Northwestern respectively held the record at 28 in 1984.
Holowell won her 120th career NCAA Division I game on February 25, beating Ohio State 5-1 to tie Britni Sneed (LSU) and Sarah Dawson (Louisiana-Monroe) for 6th place on the all-time NCAA Division I wins list; on February 26, she beat Long Beach State 10-0 in five innings to pass Sneed and Dawson and take sole possession of 6th place. She then beat Baylor University 12-4 in five innings on March 10 to record her 124th win and tie Nancy Evans (Arizona) for fifth place on the all-time list; two days later, she beat Baylor again, 11-1 in six innings, to pass Evans and take over fifth place. Her 125th victory also gave her the career wins record for the University of Arizona Wildcats.
Hollowell recorded her 130th and 131st career wins on April 30, beating Washington 2-0 and 10-1 to tie and surpass Keira Goerl (UCLA) for fourth place on the all-time list. On May 27, she beat LSU 14-5 for her 139th win, tying her with Rhonda Wheatley for third place on the career wins list; on June 1 at the Women's College World Series, she picked up her 140th career win, beating Oregon State 3-2 in nine innings to pass Wheatley for sole possession of third place.
In games two and four at the WCWS for Arizona, Hollowell beat Cat Osterman 2–0 (the first time in her career) and shot down Monica Abbott 6–0 behind a 14-strikeout, two-hit shutout game that eliminated Tennessee. The two pitchers and their teams defeated the Wildcats the year prior at the World Series.
She won her 143rd career game by shutting out Northwestern 8-0 in Game One of the NCAA WCWS Championship on June 5. She won her 144th career game in a second consecutive shutout against Northwestern, 5-0, to finish her college career by winning the 2006 NCAA World Series crown along with the Most Outstanding Player award and another place on the WCWS All-Tournament Team. Alicia struck out 13 batters (matching fellow Wildcat Parra's seven-inning 1994 championship record and setting it in the new three-chances deciding game) to reach a total of 64, breaking Debbie Doom's previous series record of 62 from 1982. Hollowell would graduate with the distinction of being the first pitcher in the top 10 NCAA Division I strikeouts list to claim a national title; it was the seventh championship for the University of Arizona.
Hollowell was selected early in 2004 to the USA Elite Team (a junior-like group to the Olympians) and competed at Canada Cup, Champions Cup and the World University Games in September. Altogether Hollowell collected 111 strikeouts, 0.96 ERA in 79.2 innings pitched. Her 62 K's at Canada Cup remains a team-high record. She also recorded a perfect game at University Games, at the time it was the second for any USA Team.
In 2005 Hollowell was named to the National USA Softball Team for the summer. She recorded 6 strikeouts in 3.2 innings, allowing no earned runs at the ISF World Cup of Softball. Team USA earned the silver medal.
Again Hollowell made the roster after her senior season with the Wildcats and pitched 6 more strikeouts allowing no earned runs in 5-inning win at the World Cup. She brought home her first gold medal in late 2006.
The 2007 season with Team USA, Hollowell didn't play in any games but won both the World Cup and Pan American Games as part of the team.
During the Bound 4 Beijing Tour, Hollowell held a 4-0 record with 42 strikeouts, 0.00 ERA in 23 innings and eight appearances on the mound. She was later named an alternate for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Some of Hollowell's cumulative stats read as contributing 165 strikeouts and a 0.98 ERA in 111.1 innings for Team USA.
Holowell was drafted in the first round of the 2006 National Pro Fastpitch Senior Draft, the 5th overall pick by the now defunct Arizona Heat based out of Tucson. Hollowell took time to finish her studies at Arizona and serve as a Undergraduate Assistant Coach before she eventually signed on with the Akron Racers in Ohio for the 2007 season.
Following her tryout at the USA National Women's Softball camp for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Hollowell made her professional debut on June 22, 2007 against the Rockford Thunder and fellow USA teammate and college rival Cat Osterman; she struck out 12 batters in the seven-inning win. Posting a 6-5 record, 70 strikeouts in 70.1 innings pitched with 15 runs on 50 hits and 18 walks issued, Hollowell led her team to second place in the regular season standings and a spot at the Championship Series. The Racers lost both of their starting games, including one to championship runner-up Rockford Thunder.
| YEAR | W | L | GP | GS | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| 2003 | 40 | 5 | 48 | 44 | 38 | 22 | 1 | 297.0 | 138 | 44 | 40 | 74 | 394 | 0.94 |
| 2004 | 41 | 4 | 48 | 44 | 38 | 21 | 1 | 293.2 | 138 | 39 | 33 | 68 | 508 | 0.79 |
| 2005 | 31 | 9 | 48 | 38 | 34 | 18 | 3 | 279.0 | 143 | 54 | 35 | 51 | 446 | 0.88 |
| 2006 | 32 | 5 | 41 | 39 | 36 | 20 | 1 | 252.1 | 133 | 40 | 32 | 39 | 420 | 0.89 |
| TOTALS | 144 | 23 | 185 | 165 | 146 | 81 | 6 | 1122.0 | 552 | 177 | 140 | 232 | 1768 | 0.87 |
| YEAR | W | L | GP | GS | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| 2004 | 8 | 3 | 14 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 79.2 | 33 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 111 | 0.96 |
| 2005 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.2 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.00 |
| 2006 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.00 |
| 2008 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 23.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 42 | 0.00 |
| TOTALS | 13 | 4 | 25 | 16 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 111.1 | 45 | 14 | 7 | 9 | 165 | 0.44 |
| YEAR | W | L | GS | CG | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| 2007 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 70.1 | 50 | 15 | 12 | 18 | 70 | 1.20 |
   | Alicia's 2008 U.S. Olympic Hopeful bio - teamusa.org - The page you were looking for doesn't exist (404) |
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