Zoe Hines recorded the first out for Boston College softball in the bottom of the sixth inning with a tough catch along the left field foul line.
The senior outfielder then followed it up the next half inning by hustling to first on a fielding error and pushing Janis Espinoza through home plate for the game-tying run.
“It’s never anything that’s a surprise to me about her within any kind of situation,” BC head coach Amy Kvilhaug said about Hines. “When it’s time for a big hit or a big moment, like she produced for us so many big moments.”
Although they pieced together a comeback bid after falling to an early 5–0 deficit, the Eagles (10–11, 0–6 Atlantic Coast) couldn’t sneak away with a victory on Saturday evening and fell 9–8 to No. 25 Virginia (21–7, 4–2).
All it took was one frame for the Cavaliers to jump out to a very early lead.
Virginia’s Jade Hylton led off the bottom of the first with a solo shot, which was then followed up with another solo home run two batters later from Bella Cabral.
It took a single from the next batter for Kvilhaug to decide she’d seen enough to pull starting pitcher Kelly Colleran.But the Cavalier offense wouldn’t give Shannon MacLeod a much better time on the mound, either.
A sequence of a fielder’s choice, a fielding error, and another fielder’s choice added one more run to the Cavaliers’ lead. Then two back-to-back RBI singles made it a 5–0 lead for Virginia before the Eagles finally had a chance to bat again.
Hines tacked on BC’s first run of the game after capitalizing on a wild pitch, but Virginia took its five-run lead right back after Cabral knocked home another RBI with a single.
Gabriella Aughton took the mound in the bottom of the second to possibly swing some momentum in the Eagles’ favor, and recorded three outs on four batters.
After a scoreless third inning from both sides, BC’s offense finally got the ball rolling in the fourth. After two walks and Hines reaching on an error, Kali Case’s 2 RBI single up the middle cut the Virginia lead to three runs.
Hannah Slike loaded the bases with another walk and Emma Jackson tied up the game the next at-bat, clearing the bases on a triple to right field.
“One of the things we talked about going into the series was just exploiting their weaknesses,” Kvilhaug said. “And they had put a shift on Emma and there was no right fielder, and Emma just worked.”
Using three pitchers in three innings, Kvilhaug hoped for the defense to turn it back to the bats for a chance for BC to take its first lead of the game.
But another solo home run put Virginia right back in front, and another error and walk had Bailey Kendziorski take the mound in the bottom of the fourth.
The Cavaliers’ fourth solo shot of the game came once again from Hylton to give Virginia a two-run cushion in the fifth.
A silent sixth inning from both teams set up for BC to answer back—and that’s just what it did.
Jackson scored on Janis Espinoza’s double after leading off with a walk to cut the lead in half. Then, Hines fed one to the second baseman, who delivered a timely error for the Eagles to tie up the game at 8–8.
Kendziorski remained on the bump for the final inning, but failed to deliver a save after a walk-off single pushed Virginia to a 9–8 win on Saturday evening.
BC and Virginia met in Charlottesville for the second game of their three-game series on Saturday afternoon.
Two first-inning runs were extremely valuable for the Cavaliers, as they walked away with a 4–2 win over the Eagles.
After a 1-2-3 first inning from BC to start the game, Virginia got right to it in the bottom half of the frame, leading off with a walk followed by a single to center field. Macee Eaton delivered a single to bring home Virginia’s first run and M.C. Eaton followed up with another single for a 2–0 lead.
After one hit through three innings and a solo home run from Eaton in the bottom of the third, BC’s offense looked to make some noise with a three-run deficit.
Jackson’s single and Stephens’ reach to first on an error allowed Espinoza to score two on her single with help from a fielding error in right field.
“We spent some time just sort of discussing some of the positive aspects that came out of the weekend and I think the never-ending fight was definitely one of the themes,” Kvilhaug said.
Virginia doubled the lead again with its sixth solo home run from the Saturday doubleheader in the fourth inning for a 4–2 lead.
A double from Gator Robinson in the fifth and a single in the sixth from Stephens was the only pressure BC’s offense provided in the next two innings, though. Kendziorski would keep the Cavaliers silent the remainder of the game, pitching four strikeouts in six innings of pitching.
Hines led off the final inning and BC’s last opportunity with a single, but two consecutive outs put the pressure on Robinson to get some sort of rally going. Her five-pitch walk put two runners on for Slike, but she flied out to right to cap off a the first game of Virginia’s series sweep.
“You gotta be ready for your particular plan and then you prepare for what the other team likely is gonna throw at you,” Kvilhaug said. “And that’s really what we talk about, is just hard work, preparation, you know, trusting in the process.”
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