Sixth-ranked UCLA won the final Pac-12 softball tournament as Sharlize Palacios hit a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning to defeat Utah 2-1 on Saturday night.

It was a defensive battle for the majority of the night, with every run coming on a solo home run.

Utah pitcher Mariah Lopez pitched a complete game, allowing just four hits and two runs — both of which were solo shots.

Lopez navigated her way out of a couple of tough situations throughout the night. In the third inning, she left two stranded and in the fourth inning, with a runner on third and one out, she struck out Ramsey Suarez, then induced a ground out from Thessa Malau’ulu to get out of the inning unscathed.

“She was incredible. I wish we could have put some hits together and scored some more runs for her because she threw one of the best games I’ve seen her throw in her career,” Utah coach Amy Hogue said.

UCLA pitchers Kaitlyn Terry and Taylor Tinsley were masterful, allowing just three hits and a solo home run.

“They were getting us to swing at balls. We’ve shot ourselves in the foot one too many times in the season with that same issue, and she did a nice job,” Hogue said.

“If she doesn’t have to throw strikes to get us out then she won’t, and so she kept getting us to chase balls and we weren’t disciplined enough to adjust and so we got three hits and that’s just not going to be enough.”

The Bruins struck first in the bottom of the second inning after Jordan Woolery got all of an off-speed Lopez pitch, smacking a home run over the center-field wall.

The Utes broke through in the top of the fifth inning on a two-out solo home run from pinch-hitter Karlie Davison, who took Terry deep to left-centerfield to knot the game at 1-1.

“I was really proud of Karlie to let go a real tough pitch in the first pitch in that at-bat with something that a lot of us were swinging at. She let it go and worked her way into a count that was a real good count to get a good pitch to hit and she hit it, so she did a nice job just earning that pitch and then obviously hitting it,” Hogue said.

After holding the Bruins scoreless in the bottom of the fifth inning — after the leadoff batter reached on an error, Lopez retired the next three batters — the Utes went down one-two-three in the top of the sixth.

Facing a 3-2 count, Palacios sent Lopez’s payoff pitch over the left field wall as the Bruins regained the lead.

“I think that she is a hitter that you have to throw every pitch, a full mix of pitches to her. She adjusted on a pitch that I think hit a good spot, so you just have to tip your cap to that hitter in that situation,” Hogue said.

Down to their last three outs, Utah’s Sophie Jacquez, Julia Jimenez and Shonty Passi were retired in order by Tinsley as the Bruins piled onto the circle to celebrate winning the final Pac-12 softball tournament.

With an RPI of 40 entering Sunday’s NCAA tournament selection show (5 p.m. MDT, ESPN2), a series win against then-No. 9 Washington to close out the regular season and wins over No. 22 Oregon and No. 8 Stanford in the Pac-12 tournament bolstered Utah’s resume.

“We needed every bit of those to position ourselves and yeah, we’ll be ready to travel somewhere and hopefully make a nice run into the postseason,” Hogue said.

The Utes should be comfortably in the NCAA tournament, which would be their second consecutive appearance. Last year, the Utes went to the College World Series for the first time since 1994 after defeating San Diego State in the super regional.

The first of the NBA’s offseason events — the draft lottery — takes place on Sunday afternoon. Here’s everything that Utah Jazz fans need to know ahead of the Sunday festivities:

How to watch

The lottery is held in Chicago and precedes the NBA Draft Combine, which is also in Chicago. The lottery will be broadcast on Sunday at 1 p.m. MDT on ABC.

I will be one of 12 media members in the drawing room at the lottery and will bring a behind the curtain look at the days events here at Deseret.com.

This determines the order in which teams will draft players during the NBA Draft, which will be held on June 26 and 27.

What to expect

The lottery determines the top four picks in the draft. The Utah Jazz will go into the night with the eighth-best odds in the lottery, which means that they’re most likely to end up with the 8th overall pick (34.48% chance), but there is always the chance that they jump up and get a top four pick (about a 26% chance).

Importantly, the Jazz owe their draft pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls out of the top 10. That means if three teams that have worse lottery odds than the Jazz end up jumping ahead of them into the top four, it would push the Jazz into the 11th spot and they would have to send that draft pick to the Thunder.

It’s an incredibly unlikely scenario (0.38%), but one that is important to know about.

Outside of the lottery, the Jazz will have two more selections in the June 26 draft the 28th pick via Oklahoma City and the 32nd pick via the Washington Wizards.

After the lottery, many NBA executives, scouts, agents and coaches will remain in Chicago for the NBA Combine, where they’ll be able to watch prospects go through drills, scrimmages and various workouts as well as interviews.

How the NBA Draft Lottery works

The 14 teams that missed the playoffs are entered into the lottery. On Sunday, 14 pingpong balls numbered 1 through 14 are placed in a lottery machine. There are 1,001 possible number combinations when four balls are drawn. Prior to the lottery, 1,000 of the 1,001 combinations are assigned to the 14 lottery teams.

The number of combinations assigned to each team are determined by reverse order of regular-season record.

The number of combinations assigned to each team in this year’s draft lottery are as follows: Detroit (140), Washington (140), Charlotte (133), Portland (132), San Antonio (105), Toronto (90), Memphis (75), Utah (60), Brooklyn-to Houston (45), Atlanta (30), Chicago (20), Houston (15), Sacramento (8) Golden State (7).

The team that was assigned the number combination that matches the first four balls drawn gets the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. The team that was assigned the number combination that matches the next four balls drawn gets the No. 2 pick and this process is repeated for the No. 3 and No. 4 pick.

The remaining lottery teams that did not get a top-four pick continue to pick in inverse order of their regular-season record.

During the drawing, if a team’s number combination is drawn a second time after already being awarded a lottery pick, those balls are reset to draw for a different team.

The lottery drawing is completed in a separate and private room just before the NBA broadcasts the results of the lottery. Inside the lottery drawing room, the NBA allows a small number of media members and a representative from each lottery team, along with a few NBA staff and security.

After the top four draft picks are decided by the lottery, the results are put into envelopes and delivered to the ABC broadcast stage, where the results are announced during a live broadcast.

Video of the lottery drawing is later shared by the NBA digitally.

Joanna Newsom paid tribute to Steve Albini — the engineer on her acclaimed 2006 album Ys — during the singer’s set Friday at Utah’s Kilby Block Party.

Stereogum reports that prior to Newsom’s performance of “Cosmia,” one of the Ys tracks she recorded with Albini, the singer gave an emotional speech about how much the noise-rock pioneer meant to her.

“So the last few days have been pretty sad because of the loss of Steve Albini, who I love very, very much and admire in every possible way you can admire a person,” Newsom said. 

“I was saying to my friend this morning that like on the list of all the reasons why he’s my hero, music and music-related stuff doesn’t even crack the top ten. He’s been so enormously important in my life musically for so many years, but still just as a human, as a person, as a hilarious, loving, loyal friend to so many people. I miss him. I’m gonna miss him so much. I haven’t accepted it yet.”

In addition to Ys — one of Albini’s essential recordings — Newsom, who previously called Albini “pretty much the best producer in the world,” also enlisted Albini to engineer her 2015 LP Divers.

“I was in this small room with Steve Albini and nobody else, and I was playing the songs exactly as they are, and it was a pretty intense time,” Newsom said in an interview shortly after Ys’ release. “I had it candlelit, in the dark with just candles and conjuring up these pretty insane moments that I had been experiencing…. There’s something about the way Steve recorded me and the environment in which it was done. There was a sense of closeness and spontaneity, and I felt extremely emotionally on edge, and I went through these vocal takes. I was just wrecked afterwards because it was such an emotional experience.”

Newsom concluded Friday’s tribute by adding, “He recorded the album that this next song is on, as well as so much other stuff that I’ve done. I can’t believe I don’t get to record with him again, but I love Steve. I love you, Steve. This one’s for you.”

Following Albini’s death earlier this week at the age of 61, many of the artists he collaborated with — like Dave Grohl, Jimmy Page, PJ Harvey, Superchunk, his Big Black bandmate Santiago Durango, and more — have shared tributes and remembrances of the legendary musician, producer, and writer.