After notching its first ACC win of the season this weekend against Boston College, the Virginia softball team aims to carry its confidence and momentum into today's doubleheader against Towson at 2 p.m. at The Park.
The Cavaliers (12-24, 1-8 ACC) lost both games Saturday to the Eagles by close scores of 8-6 and 8-7, but came back Sunday with vengeance and put a complete game together, winning 6-2.
"We held them to fewer runs," said Virginia coach Karen Johns. "We didn't allow as many base runners, got some good pitches and threw some strikeouts when we needed them."
Junior Whitney Holstun, normally an outfielder, gained her first-ever collegiate pitching win and moved to 1-0 in her seventh appearance of the season. Virginia used three hurlers in the victory. Senior pitcher Coty Tolar started the game and was then relieved by Holstun in the third. Holstun was then relieved by sophomore pitcher Karla Wilburn, who faced three batters in the sixth. Tolar reentered in the sixth, retired the last five batters and recorded her first save of the season.
"All of the elements of our game came together," said senior center fielder Meghan O'Leary. O'Leary went three for three in the Cavalier victory and six for eight on the weekend.
Freshman first baseman Kelly Haller led the offensive attack all weekend for Virginia. Haller went two for four with two RBIs in the victory and a homerun. For the weekend, she went five for nine with eight RBIs and two home runs. Sophomore shortstop Kierstie Cameron got her first home run of the season in the victory as well.
Despite losing the series, the Cavaliers displayed solid offense throughout the weekend. Their defense improved from Saturday to Sunday and that is what helped them get the win.
"Offensively, we played great all weekend," O'Leary said. "Today we didn't let them score as many runs and defensively, we were pretty sound."
Virginia now sets its sights on Towson (15-15, 2-4 Colonial Athletic Conference), located in Towson, Md. This past weekend, the Tigers took two of three games from the University of Delaware.
Towson sports only one player in the lineup hitting above .300, senior shortstop Megan Zwoyer, at .351.
Towson's pitching staff features three regular starters in freshman pitcher Shannon Johnston (5-4, 2.72 ERA), senior pitcher Jillian Kiley (8-8, 3.04 ERA) and sophomore Jess Arnoldi (2-3, 5.91 ERA). The staff is one that vexed Cavalier hitters at times last season.
"Towson is a very experienced team," Johns said. "They have good hitting, good pitching and they caused us some problems last year, so we better be ready to play, that's for sure. We'll let the kids see the film from last year so they can see the pitching."
Haller (.439), senior designated hitter Brooke Sorber (.328) and O'Leary (.263) all raised their batting averages over the weekend and are one, two and three, respectively, for highest batting averages on the team.
As has been the case all season, Virginia will be trying to carry momentum from one game to the next, a feat that has proven difficult.
"Every non-conference game is a game we need to win," O'Leary said. "We need to keep the consistency going, work out the kinks and keep up our momentum from this weekend and carry it into the week."
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