Virginia Softball Blasts Nine Homers, Goes 5-0 in Home Tournament

The word "intense" came up frequently when UVA softball head coach Joanna Hardin was describing her team's experience at the Shriners Children's Clearwater Invitational last weekend in Clearwater, Florida. The Cavaliers faced three ranked opponents, beating two of them, suffered two losses in extra innings, and pulled a massive upset against then-No. 4 UCLA on a walk-off home run to wrap up the weekend.

"Not only was it the teams that we played, and the rankings and all that stuff, but it was just the intensity of that tournament," Hardin recalled. "You're walking around there with national championship softball programs and national championship coaches and ESPN is all over the place, there's interviews and fans and it's so loud and it feels like a championship environment."

When the Cavaliers returned home to prepare for their home opener with the Mizuno Classic at Palmer Park, it took a few days for them to rest and recover from that experience. Having the start of this weekend's games delayed by a couple of days due to inclement weather might have been a blessing in disguise.

But when the home tournament finally got underway, Hardin's Cavaliers showed that they ready to go again, and more importantly, did not exhibit any symptoms of a hangover coming off of the draining and taxing trip to Clearwater. Virginia played five games in three days this weekend at Palmer Park, winning all five, including the last two via run-rule, and hitting nine home runs along the way.

Game 1 (February 22): Penn 1, Virginia 5

Penn took a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly in the third inning, but that was the only time the Quakers got to either Julia Cuozzo or Eden Bigham, who pitched the final four innings scoreless and struck out five batters to earn her first win of the season. The game remained 1-0 until the fifth inning, when Kailyn Jones and Jade Hylton hit RBI triples on consecutive at-bats. Bella Cabral hit the first home run of the weekend in the sixth, a solo shot to center field. Virginia got two more runs on an RBI single from Sydney Hartgrove and an RBI double rom Reece Holbrook to make it 5-1.

Game 2 (February 22): Delaware 2, Virginia 5

UVA again fell behind early in the second game of the day, as Delaware's Sydney Shaffer hit a solo home run and then Shaffer also delivered an RBI single in the third to make it 2-0 in favor of the Blue Hens. Like the Penn game, though, Virginia bounced back from its slow start at the plate with some clutch hitting later on, getting a two-out, two-run double from Macee Eaton in the fifth inning to tie the game. In the sixth inning, an infield single from Kailyn Jones scored Kamyria Woody-Giggetts to give Virginia the lead and then Kelly Ayer hit a two-run single up the middle to make it 5-2. Savanah Henley improved to 4-1 on the season as she was credited with the win out of the bullpen, while Eden Bigham earned her fourth save of the season.

Game 3 (February 23): Penn 0, Virginia 3

Pitching ruled the first game on Sunday for the Cavaliers, as freshman Ava Hodges picked up her first-career win as she pitched five scoreless innings, gave up just three hits, and struck out four batters before handing the ball over to Courtney Layne, who earned the save and preserved the shutout over the final two innings. The Hoos finally got some early offense as Jade Hylton hit a leadoff inside-the-park home run in the first inning, but they didn't score again until four innings later. Hylton and Kelsey Hackett each delivered sacrifice flies in the fifth and sixth innings to give Virginia a 3-0 lead that held as the final score.

Game 4 (February 23): Delaware 2, Virginia 11 (6 innings)

The UVA offense came to life in the fourth game of the weekend, as the Cavaliers plated four runs in the first inning on an RBI single by Macee Eaton and a three-run home run by MC Eaton. Delaware scored a run in the second and then Bella Cabral hit a solo homer in the third, but Delaware fired back with a solo home run in the fourth to make it 5-2. Virginia essentially put the game away with another four-spot in the bottom of the fifth, scoring twice on RBI groundouts, once on a wild pitch, and once on an RBI double from Macee Eaton. Cabral hit her second home run of the game, a two-run bomb in the sixth that served as the walk-off to trigger the run-rule. Eden Bigham tossed a complete game and struck out six in her second win of the season.

Game 5 (February 24): Longwood 0, Virginia 10 (5 innings)

It was pure domination for Virginia in the final game of the Mizuno Classic as the Cavaliers hit four home runs and blitzed Longwood to the tune of 10-0 blowout in five innings. Virginia scored three runs in the first, including two on a two-run homer from MC Eaton, then two in the second on a two-run home run from Jade Hylton. UVA opted to have the speedy Kamyria Woody-Giggetts pinch run on first base in the third and that move immediately paid off as she scored from first easily on a triple by Reece Holbrook. Hylton hit her second home run of the game in the third as well, a two-run home run to make it 8-0. Kelsey Hackett laced a two-run shot into the left field bullpen in the fourth to cap off the 10-0 win. Julia Cuozzo earned the win by pitching four scoreless innings and Savanah Henley struck out the side in the fifth to seal it.

Winners of six games in a row to improve to 10-5 on the season, Virginia will host another invitational tournament at Palmer Park next weekend with Cornell, Seton Hall, and Hofstra coming to Charlottesville for the Party at Palmer Invitational.