The Virginia softball team looks to string together back-to-back wins for the first time since early March when it hosts in-state rival James Madison at 4 p.m. today at The Park. Although the squad has seen its share of struggles during recent weeks, a team-wide return to full health also has prompted a return of confidence.
The Cavaliers (16-19, 1-7 ACC), who have dealt with injuries to their top two pitchers - sophomore Melanie Mitchell and freshman Erica Cipolloni - just completed a three-game series against North Carolina this past weekend. During that series, Mitchell - who had seen action in only one game since sustaining an injury March 13 - started two of the games and earned the victory during Sunday's contest.
"It felt good to get the win over the weekend," Mitchell said. "This season I've been battling sickness and injury and it's been pretty frustrating. But it has been a pretty good recovery process. I'm not quite at 100 percent yet, but in game situations you just give it all you got and get through it."
The return of Mitchell - and the continually improving health of Cipolloni, who has been playing through multiple minor injuries - could not have come at a better time for the Cavaliers. Virginia enters today's game as losers of 10 of its past 12 games, a streak which started the day Mitchell went down. But having won its last game, the team will look to start its first winning streak since it earned a pair of victories March 12.
"It's really nice to see that Erica and Mel have gotten healthy," coach Eileen Schmidt said. "It's taken awhile. It's not normal to have your number one and number two go down. So it's nice to have both of them back in some capacity - in a healthy capacity - because you can kind of see that glimmer now and see the confidence back."
Schmidt - who said Mitchell will be a game-time decision depending on how she feels and may be extra cautious with an important weekend series against Florida State looming - knows her team will have its hands full with James Madison. The Dukes (23-10, 5-1 CAA) enter as winners of nine of their last 11, including their previous three, and showcase an extremely diverse offensive attack.\nLed by sophomore outfielder Jasmine Butler and junior shortstop Ashley Burnham - the 2010 CAA Player of the Year - the Dukes can attack opponents with both power and speed. Butler paces the team with a .417 batting average and is a threat to run anytime she reaches base - as evidenced by her 17 stolen bases on 19 attempts - while Burnham provides potent big-swing potential. The celebrated junior leads the team with an .832 slugging percentage and has hit 11 home runs so far this season, two more than the entire Cavalier roster combined.
"They're a good team, and they can do a lot," Schmidt said. "They run, they pick their spots and they read defenses well ... They're obviously getting a lot of people on, and creating their own offense. They're being very aggressive with the game instead of letting it come to them. And they do have that real power threat as well."
On top of the difficulty inherent in playing a talented team is the added factor of proximity. James Madison, a school located no more than an hour from Charlottesville, has become a perennial rival of the Cavaliers, and while familiarity has not necessarily bred contempt, both teams will be playing with an added incentive to win.
"The in-state rivalries around here are tremendous; they've always been that way," Schmidt said. "You compete with these schools recruiting-wise, you compete with them for the in-state kids. Every time you play somebody in-state, they bring their best game because they certainly want to show you what they have, and we need to do the same thing from our end."
There is another more personal issue at play in this game as well. The rosters of both teams contain several players from the Virginia and Maryland areas who have played together - either as teammates or adversaries - in high school and AAU competition since they were young.
"I've played with or against most of those girls since I was 10 years old, so I know what they can do offensively and defensively," Mitchell said. "It's kind of frustrating in a way, because you know what they can do, but at the same time you don't want them to beat you. It's such an intense rivalry that you want to make the best of it."
Although the Cavaliers have gone 6-2 against James Madison during the past six seasons - including a tight 5-4 victory in Harrisonburg last year - they realize the wins rarely have come easily.\n"They're a very scrappy, very tough team," Mitchell said. "Every year it seems like it comes down to the wire - last year it came down to the last play of the game. From year to year they're very tough. But we need some wins, so we have to pull it out [today]"
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