Villanova’s baseball team opened its fall season on Saturday, Sept. 30 with a double-header at home against Princeton. The Wildcats came away with a 4–1 win and a 7–7 tie.
Head coach Kevin Mulvey saw strong potential in the team’s pitching staff for the upcoming campaign.
“The biggest takeaway for me was that I was very pleased with the amount of strikes we threw as a staff,” Mulvey said. “One of our goals this fall is to improve as a strike-throwing unit and I’m excited about what’s to come.”
Twelve Villanova pitchers took the hill, throwing more 60-percent strikes on the day in 16 total innings.
The bats were hot from the start as the Wildcats recorded a convincing win in a shortened seven-inning game over the Tigers in the first tilt of the day.
However, the Wildcats encountered more difficulty in the closely-contested second game, which went the full nine innings.
With a slim one-run lead over the Tigers going into the top of the ninth, trouble arrived for Villanova’s defense in the final plays of the game.
Villanova infielders failed to finish a double-play opportunity and allowed a passed ball to advance a Princeton runner to third base. A sacrifice fly tied the score, 7–7, and both teams agreed to call the fall exhibition game a stalemate after the Wildcats could not reclaim the lead in the bottom half of the inning.
“There was a collapse on defense in the last inning, which is something that we’ll have to clean up and get better at,” Mulvey said. “We have a lot of time to figure things out.”
Much of the Villanova roster saw the field on Saturday, enabling Mulvey and the coaching staff to see the whole of the team in action during limited fall gameplay.
In July, the program welcomed a new assistant coach, Eddie Cribby, who will coach first base and work with catchers.
For the 2024 campaign, the Wildcats also bring in eight rookies in the freshman class and several college transfers.
“We’re going to have to rely on some of [the new players] to help us win games,” Mulvey said. “We’re working to develop both individually and collectively and improve in the areas we struggled in last year.”
The team is determined to use the fall schedule to establish the foundation for a stronger regular season than last year, which ended in a 14–27 overall record. The Wildcats went 7–13 in the Big East, not qualifying for the conference tournament.
Villanova will return to Villanova Ballpark at Plymouth Meeting on Friday, Oct. 6 to take on Rowan College of Gloucester County.
