The Virginia softball team closed out its weekend with a 7-2 win over Syracuse, propelling the Hoos to 5-4 in conference play. The Orange has struggled against ACC opponents this season, and secured their first win in ACC play against the Hoos on Friday. UVA managed to bounce back following that loss, however, delivering strong performances in subsequent games.
“We just have to keep the bats going through all seven innings,” Cavalier short stop Jade Hylton said. “Today we had a pretty big second inning and then we didn’t put up anything for the next four but just worked on stringing them together every inning and staying hot all game.”
The Hoos got off to a hot start in Sunday’s game, scoring 2 runs in the top of the first. Virginia pitcher Mikayla Houge held the Orange from scoring with a 1-2-3 first inning. The Wahoos kept it rolling in the second inning when they scored 5 earned runs on 4 hits. Syracuse’s hitting struggles continued, meanwhile, as the visitors failed to score again in the second inning. Virginia did not score again, but Cuse finally got on the board with a 2-run home run from Laila Morales-Alves in the fourth to reach the 7-2 final.
Following the first game of the series, Virginia managed to adjust in order to produce two straight wins. After the game, Cavalier coach Joanna Hardin spoke on the message she gave the team following Friday’s series opener, a disappointing 6-1 loss.
“We came into the weekend knowing we wanted to come out with a lot of energy and intent and I thought Friday was energetic and enthusiastic but we just did not execute with runners in scoring position,” Hardin said. “[Saturday] felt similar where we had opportunities but just couldn’t get that timely hit but we scratched and clawed our way out. The message going into game 2 was we gotta let that one go and believe in ourselves and our offense. You just have to fall back on all your training and successes. Our offense has had a lot of success, we can hit. We just had to turn the page and go to the next one and they did a great job of doing that.”
Hylton kept the Hoos’ offense alive throughout the entirety of the weekend as she had a lead-off double each of the games. Bella Cabral and Leah Boggs also had an impact on the offense. Cabral had 2 hits and 1 RBI on the weekend, while Boggs had 3 hits and 2 RBI with a home run. That homer scored both runs in UVA’s 2-1 win Saturday. In Sunday’s game, Abby Weaver, Kelsey Hackett, and Shelby Barbee all produced 2 RBI.
On the mound, Houge went on to pitch 4 innnings Sunday with 5 hits and 2 earned runs allowed. Eden Bigham came in for the final 3 innnings and allowed just 1 hit with 6 strikeouts to pick up the save. That relief appearance showed a big bounce back effort from Bigham. She allowed 4 earned runs in a start on Friday. The Saturday pitching story saw Julia Cuozzo and Courtney Layne combine to shut down Syracuse as the duo allowed only 2 hits and 1 walk. Cuozzo went 4 innings and allowed 1 run on 2 hits. Layne came in for 3 scoreless no-hit innings with only 1 walk.
Virginia has won both home series to date in ACC play after taking 2 of 3 games from both Boston College and Syracuse. The Hoos look to build on that as they prepare for another set of home games. First, they prepare for a quick turnaround against Rutgers on Tuesday. Next weekend brings Clemson to town in conference play.
Coach Hardin emphasized the importance of adaptability and consistency in preparation for the upcoming game against Rutgers.
“We’ll adjust our pitching based on their players and we’ll also adjust our hitting and just attack based on what we see and what we face,” Hardin said. “I really just want to see a full game of seven innings of quality hitting and quality outs. We need to stick to our plan for seven innings – I thought we did that for about four or five today which is great, and it was enough for today. If we can do that for seven I think that is going to put us in a great spot going into the second half of ACCs.”
