The first pitch of the season in Palmer Park was thrown around 1:00 p.m. Friday. The third inning in Virginia softball’s home opener finished up not long after 2:30 p.m. What occurred in that hour and a half can only be described as pure domination.
Thirteen different Cavaliers (5-1, 0-0 ACC) reached base on 16 hits and six walks. Delaware State pitchers — all three of them who appeared in the first three innings — tossed 136 pitches, with a 50 percent strike percentage. In the 20-0 victory, all runs were scored in the first two innings — the last time the Cavaliers scored exactly that many runs in an entire game was against the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on March 6, 1993. In the first five games of this season, Virginia scored 24 runs in total — the Cavaliers nearly doubled that total in the win over the Hornets (0-1, 0-0 MEAC).
By the third inning, only three original starters remained in the field — junior infielder Bella Cabral, sophomore utility player Madison Greene and redshirt freshman catcher Reagan Hickey. By the fifth inning, the trio, along with their substituted teammates, headed off the field to celebrate the program’s most complete victory in decades. Coach Joanna Hardin, reflecting on the day, made note of the many different players that contributed to the win.
“We are committed to our players and we get them better,” Hardin said. “That’s our job and our goal as a staff. So it’s rewarding when you have opportunities to provide at-bats, innings on the field for some of the non-starters, and I think they appreciate those opportunities.”
Players from the top to the bottom of Virginia’s roster capitalized on opportunities today. Unsurprisingly, the stars did more than enough — senior infielder Jade Hylton went 2-for-2 with a walk in her at-bats, contributing two runs, while junior infielder Macee Eaton continued her dominant 2026 with two doubles to send three runs home. Eaton now has two homers, four doubles and 10 RBIs on the year.
Senior outfielder Kassidy Hudson, meanwhile, has made a convincing argument to replace Kelly Ayer at second in the order. While freshman outfielder Jaiden Griffith started the first four games behind Hylton, Hudson has for the last two — the senior went 2-for-2 with an RBI today, perhaps securing herself the spot for the near future.
“We’re trying to take a little bit of pressure off of [Griffith], let her get comfortable, get confident,” Hardin said, “I think [Hudson] has done an excellent job for us, and so she’s there. She just has experience. She’s confident, she’s comfortable.”
While she has struggled to get on base, Griffith contributed a sacrifice fly today, her fourth RBI of the season — three of her RBIs came when batting ninth in the order.
“I think I really like the nine spot for [Griffith], because you have [Hylton] on deck,” Hardin said, “Nobody wants to really face [Hylton], so … she’s going to get more pitches on the plate knowing that [Hylton] is coming up behind her.”
Greene, another underclassman, has established herself as one of the most consistent hitters on the team through six games. After contributing the winning run in their matchup against Akron last weekend, she stepped up yet again to lead Virginia in RBIs against the Hornets, with five, her second multi-RBI performance this season despite not appearing in Virginia’s first two games.
Apart from Eaton and Greene’s heroics, the standout performance on the day came from Hickey. She has made appearances as a designated player in three games this season, but this was her first start at catcher. The redshirt freshman entered today with one career hit — she added to that, and then some. Hickey was second on the team with four RBIs, half of them coming from her first career home run, which would score the last runs of the game.
“I think I’ve been working really hard for [the home run], and so definitely felt like hard work paid off,” Hickey said. “And [I] tried to stay calm in the box and see the pitch that I wanted and stay within my zone.”
Hickey and her teammates have been seeing plenty of pitches they want as of late — Virginia’s offensive explosion culminated in the program’s second mercy-rule victory in a row, extending its win streak to five games. The margins of victory across their past two contests — 28 runs — would not have been nearly as large without excellence from inside the circle.
Senior Courtney Layne was stellar in the Kickin’ Chicken Classic, but Virginia’s pitching room may run even deeper. Sophomore Ava Hodges surrendered just one hit — the Hornets’ only hit of the day — and one walk across her two innings pitched, with two strikeouts. Junior Julia Cuozzo closed out the game, striking out two in her lone inning. In between, freshman Taylor Smith threw her two best innings of the season, striking out four with zero walks and zero hits. She now has two outings with at least two strikeouts and zero hits allowed, with the first coming in her debut appearance against Akron (1-6, 0-0 MAC).
Hodges and Cuozzo, along with their teammates, have rebounded from the difficulties they faced in the 17-1 loss to No. 11 Arkansas, which seems fully in the rearview mirror as the Cavaliers ride on. Now, they travel to Farmville, Va., for the Longwood Invitational — their first matchup comes against Longwood — at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Read More
For Virginia swimming, their toughest ACC opponent may just be the rulebook
By Aimee Crosbie | 53 minutes agoAs Virginia heads to Atlanta, it is primarily navigating the limits of its own excellence.
Virginia’s late-game rally stalls in 64-58 loss at California
By Jordan Zimm | 2 hours agoThe Cavaliers remain on the West Coast to take on the Stanford Cardinal (16-10, 5-8 ACC) Sunday in an effort to bounce back from a loss defined by stagnant first-half offense and playing catch-up.
Who is Rhonda Quagliana, Jahmal Edrine’s defense attorney?
By Aimee Crosbie | 3 hours agoQuagliana is a veteran litigator with more than 25 years of experience in complex civil and criminal litigation.
