On Wednesday, March 25, Villanova (6-26, 4-8 Big East) softball traveled to Newark to take on the University of Delaware (15-17) where they fell, 5-2, to the Blue Hens.
After taking a lead early in the game, Villanova gave up five unanswered runs, dropping the game.
Sophomore Sophia Mount pitched for three innings. She struck out one, walked one and gave up five runs on seven hits.
In the first inning of play, junior Grace Reed hit her second career home run, giving the Wildcats two runs to start off the game.
In the bottom of the second, Delaware scored two runs to tie things up at 2-2.
They added two more from a home run in the bottom of the third.
Sophomore Lexi Kobryn took the mound for Villanova, where she pitched three scoreless innings. She struck out one and allowed one hit.
On Friday, Villanova hosted Georgetown for a three-game series. They defeated the Hoyas on Friday and Saturday, to clinch the series but lost on Sunday and could not get the sweep.
In the opening game, Reed hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning, giving Villanova a two run advantage to secure the win.
The 11 inning game was the longest the Wildcats had played since March 2023, also against Delaware.
“I was proud of them just because we went down, and it would have been really easy to kind of give up because now we’re down a run instead of being tied,” head coach Bridget Orchard said. “But actually being down, I think motivated them a little bit more, and they were confident.”
Freshman Maggie King pitched five innings. She struck out one, walked three and gave up four runs on five hits.
Georgetown got on the board first, with three runs in the top of the first inning.
In the top of the third, the Hoyas added another. Senior Madison Ostrowski responded with an RBI double to make the score 4-1.
In the fourth, senior Lily St.Jean made it 4-2 with a single to score sophomore Ava Mahnken. Then in the fifth, Villanova tied the game at 4-4 with an RBI single from Kobryn followed by an RBI groundout from freshman Katie Reed.
Both teams were scoreless until the 11th inning. In the top of the 11th, Georgetown hit a home run to go up 5-4.
In the bottom of the 11th, senior Kendall Spivey made it to first base with one out on the board. Then, with two outs, Reed stepped up and hit the home run walk-off to secure Villanova’s 6-5 win.
“[Reed] is the type of kid that makes these ridiculous athletic plays that not many people can make, so she’s always kind of making the big play on defense,” Orchard said. “She’s strong and a power hitter and able to kind of come through, when we needed to come through a big hit.”
The following day, Villanova returned for another win over the Hoyas, with a final score of 5-3.
Junior Maranda Runco started as pitcher for Villanova, pitching five innings with four strikeouts, three walks and gave up three runs on three hits. Runco also hit two home runs in the contest to mark her second multi-home run game of the season.
She opened the scoring for the game with a home run. Georgetown responded quickly to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the first.
Ostrowski hit a sacrifice fly to score sophomore Jaclyn Morra, going up 2-1. The Hoyas tied things up again in the top of the third.
Reed hit another sacrifice fly, scoring Gray and taking a 3-2 lead. Runco then hit her second home run to extend the Wildcat’s lead to 5-2.
Georgetown added one more run before the game finished, with a final score of 5-3. Freshman pitcher Carly Zych held the Hoyas scoreless in the last two innings of the contest.
On Sunday, the Wildcats hosted Georgetown for the third game of the series and aiming to clinch. The Hoyas were able to tally seven runs to Villanova’s five and ultimately win the final contest.
Kobryn pitched for the ‘Cats for two innings. She struck out one, walked one and gave up four runs on four hits.
Georgetown took an early lead, going up 4-0 in the first two innings. In the bottom of the second, Villanova added two off an RBI double from Mahnken and a walk from Runco.
The Hoyas continued their momentum, notching two runs in the third followed by another two in the fifth to take a 7-2 lead.
Villanova managed three more runs in the fifth, but it was not enough to close the gap. Georgetown held Villanova to five runs and won the contest, 7-5.
Villanova will take on the University of Connecticut (13-22, 6-3 Big East) in a series spanning from Friday April 3 to Saturday April 4. Due to anticipated cold temperatures on Thursday, Friday will feature a double header. The first game will begin at 3:00 p.m. and the second at 5:30 p.m at Connecticut Softball Complex.
“We are looking to just rest and recover obviously,” Orchard said. “It’s been a grind and long season and a lot of games so it gives us kind of an extra day to rest.”
