Villanova softball returned to form this weekend with a 3-1 record in the Joan Joyce Classic in Boca Raton, FL.
The Wildcats defeated No. 25 Florida Atlantic University on Friday, Feb. 14, Minnesota on the 15th and Dartmouth on Sunday, Feb. 16, with two separate complete-game shutouts by freshman pitcher Lexi Kobryn the highlights.
After losing the opener on Friday against Louisville, the Wildcats secured the team’s first top-25 victory of the season against FAU. Villanova then notched wins over Minnesota and Dartmouth to close out the weekend.
Louisville defeated Villanova in the weekend opener, 5-1.
After Villanova went scoreless in the top of the first inning, Louisville jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the home half, plating runs on a two-run single and two-run double before closing the scoring on another run-scoring double.
Neither team scored again until Villanova senior shortstop Ava Franz led off the top of the fourth with a solo home run.
“[Franz] has been just really producing,” Villanova head coach Bridget Orchard said. “Being a senior, she knows it’s her last year so she wants to go out with a bang. She’s had a couple of home runs. She was on base constantly and just really hit the ball hard.”
That score would hold for the remainder of the game.
For the Wildcats, junior pitcher Kat Gallant pitched a complete game but earned the loss, surrendering seven hits and five runs. She also walked three batters and collected four strikeouts.
To close the Friday doubleheader, Villanova earned a 1-0 upset over No. 25 FAU.
Both squads struggled to find offense until the top of the third, when the Wildcats caught a break, as a fielding error by the Owls allowed redshirt junior right fielder Alexa Raphael to score.
The game remained 1-0 into the bottom of the seventh inning when FAU put the tying and go-ahead runs on base before Kobryn induced a pop-out to end the threat and secure the victory.
Kobryn twirled a four-hit shutout, walking only two and recording four strikeouts.
“I think this weekend she was more comfortable,” Orchard said. “[She] trust[ed] [herself] a little bit more and threw really well.”
On Saturday, the Wildcats defeated Minnesota, 10-8, in a thriller that saw 22 total hits between the teams.
Minnesota opened the scoring when senior catcher Taylor Krapf crushed a solo home run two batters into the top of the first inning.
Villanova answered in the bottom of the first with two runs to take the lead, tying the game on sophomore DP Miranda Runco’s RBI single. The Wildcats then took a 2-1 lead when freshman third baseman Jaclyn Morra scored on a Golden Gopher error.
The ‘Cats stretched the lead to 7-1 in the third. Morra’s single knocked in the first run of the game. Two more scored on Runco’s double before freshman catcher Ava Mahnken’s sacrifice fly brought home another. Redshirt senior first baseman Brooklyn Ostrowski sprinted home on a throwing error to tally the final run of the inning.
Minnesota began its comeback in the fourth inning, cutting the lead to five when a sacrifice fly brought in a run.
The Golden Gophers offense then exploded for five runs in the top of the fifth to tie the game, 7-7. The first runs of the inning came courtesy of Minnesota junior center fielder Breezy Burnett’s three-run home run before Minnesota added two runs on consecutive RBI singles.
The Wildcats took the lead back in the bottom of the fifth. With one out and two runners on, Mahnken blasted a three-run home run to break the tie, putting Villanova up, 10-7.
“It’s just hard for a freshman to find their groove [early in the season],” Orchard said. It was awesome to see [Mahnken] come through in that big situation.”
After a scoreless sixth inning for both teams, Minnesota began a two-out rally in the top of the seventh, scratching a run across on an RBI single to make the score 10-8. After surrendering a walk to load the bases and put the winning run on first base, Gallant got the final batter to fly out to center field to end the game.
Gallant earned the win out of the bullpen for the Wildcats, completing 3.0 innings of seven-hit, three-run ball. She walked two batters and struck out four.
In the weekend finale, Villanova blanked Dartmouth, 3-0.
Villanova scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second when sophomore third baseman Grace Reed scored on a wild pitch.
The ‘Cats added to their lead in the bottom of the third when Franz’s solo home run and Runco’s RBI double pushed the lead to 3-0.
Both teams failed to score in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Dartmouth was able to put just its fourth base runner of the game on the bottom of the seventh on an error before being set down by Kobryn to end the game.
Kobryn finished all seven innings, allowing just two hits and one walk to go along with four strikeouts. She was also extremely efficient with her pitch count, needing just 66 pitches in her complete-game effort.
The Wildcats will travel to Clemson, SC to compete in the Clemson Classic this weekend.
