MONTGOMERY, Ala. -  Prairie View A&M's junior Crystal Castillo pitched a complete-game in an 3-0 shutout over the Lady Braves of Alcorn State, Wednesday afternoon at the Barbara Williams Softball Complex.
 
The clutch victory came in the first round of the 2019 Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament at Alabama State, allowing Vernon L. Bland's team to advance into the winner's bracket.
 
The west second-seeded Lady Panthers (29-15) will challenge the winner of Alabama A&M and Arkansas Pine Bluff game at 3 p.m. Thursday.
 
Alcorn, which came into the tournament as the No. 3 east seed, slipped into the loser's bracket and will play the looser of the Alabama A&M/Arkansas Pine Bluff Thursday at noon.
 
Castillo (13-4), who was named as the SWAC Pitcher of the Year and to the SWAC first team on Tuesday night, limited the Lady Braves to just three hits over seven innings.  She walked two and struck out seven.
 
Both teams went scoreless through the first three innings, before Prairie View A&M got on the board in the fourth inning. Laurisa Hernandez led off the inning with a single up the middle.  Freshman Jeah Williams came into pinch run for Hernandez touching home base on a fielder's choice, and a couple of fielding errors by the Lady Braves to give the Lady Panthers a 1-0 lead.
 
Another scoreless inning in the top of the fifth for Alcorn led to another run for Prairie View.  Shelby Williams opened the frame with a single bunt and advanced to second on a wild pitch.  Destinee Williams singled to right field to place S. Williams in scoring position.  With one out Hernandez reached base on fielder's choice scoring S. Williams for the second score of the game for PVAMU to take the 2-0 advantage
 
The Lady Panthers continued their steady scoring into the sixth inning, when a double from freshman Bianca Cruz ushered in sophomore Brianna Grays for a 3-0 lead.
 
Alcorn was unable to answer in the top of the seventh inning, sealing PVAMU's win.
 
S. Williams went 2-for-4 to lead all Lady Panthers.   D. Williams, Hernandez and Cruz each had a hit a piece, while freshman Serena Antone and Cruz both collected one RBI on the day.