With one swing of the bat, Sharlize Palacios ended three weeks of frustration for the Arizona softball team.
Palacios' two-run, walk-off homer in the seventh inning Sunday gave No. 19-ranked UA a 10-9 win over No. 11 Washington at Hillenbrand Stadium. The Wildcats (20-12, 1-8) snapped an eight-game skid with their first Pac-12 win.
UA had been swept by UCLA and ASU and then suffered two hard-luck losses to the Huskies on Friday and Saturday.
Down 9-8, Allie Enright singled with one out and advanced to second on a wild pitch, setting up Palacios' blast.
UA had led 5-1 after one inning and 6-2 after two, before UW (22-11, 3-6) clawed back, as it had in the first two games of the series. Washington went up 9-8 with four runs in the sixth.
Allie Skaggs and Carlie Scupin both homered for UA. Izzy Pacho had three of team's 16 hits, while Skaggs, Palacios, Jasmine Perezchica, Blaise Biringer, Paige Dimler and Sophia Carroll all had two hits.
Hanah Bowen (7-5) gave up four runs — only one earned — in three innings to take the win in relief.
After being outscored 43-2 in the first six Pac-12 games, the Wildcats scored 22 runs in three games against the Huskies.
Arizona next travels to take on Oregon State (29-8, 5-4) for a three-game series beginning at 6 p.m. Friday. OSU is coming off a three-game sweep at Cal when it did not allow a run the entire weekend.
