Softball Drops Two Games to No. 19 South Florida

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March 20, 1999

TAMPA, Fla. – The University of Virginia softball team played its final two games of its spring break trip, as the Cavaliers faced the #19 South Florida Bulls at the University of South Florida. USF entered its games with UVa on a roll after climbing into the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 rankings, and Virginia was looking to snap out of a six-game losing streak.

Once again, the Cavaliers knew they were going to have their hands full with the Bulls, but were up to the challenge. UVa had played several ranked teams very close earlier in the season, and entered the contest with South Florida with a 1-5 record against teams appearing in this weeks Top 25 poll. UVa split a pair of games with current #23 Texas A&M, winning one game 1-0 and dropping another contest by the score of 9-3. Virginia lost three nail-bitters to current #18 Minnesota (1-0), #3 Fresno State (4-1), and were coming off the heels of a 2-0 loss to #20 New Mexico. All three of those games went into extra innings, as the Cavaliers fell in eight innings to Minnesota and Fresno State and dropped its contest with New Mexico in 11 innings. UVa also fell in a 14-2 decision to #15 Illinois-Chicago.

After facing #19 South Florida in the final games of its spring break trip, the Cavaliers would not disappoint in playing in another exciting battle with another ranked opponent. The Bulls took the first game in convincing fashion over UVa with a 7-0 victory. However, for the third time this season, UVa took a ranked team into extra innings. Once again, the Cavaliers would come away with a sour taste in their mouths. After eight scoreless innings of play, South Florida scored a run in the bottom of the ninth inning to pull out a 1-0 win. Virginia has now lost five of its six extra inning games this season.

In game one, the Bulls scored three runs in the second inning, two runs in the third inning, and one run in both the fourth and fifth innings en route to the 7-0 win. The pitching duo of Chrissy Quinn and Kristen Dennis could not stop the Bulls bats, as Quinn gave up three runs (one earned) on three hits in one and one-third innings before being replace by Dennis. Dennis yielded four runs (three earned) on six hits in four and two-thirds innings of work. Dennis gathered UVa’s only two hits of the contest, as she finished 2-3 at the plate.

In the second game, pitcher Stacey Zagol spread out seven hits before her eighth hit flew off the end of South Florida’s Monica Triner’s bat in the fashion of a game-winning homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning. Virginia recorded six hits in the game, led by Meaghan Young (2-4) and Dennis (2-4, double), but were unable to score in the contest. Amy Peay (1-3) and Lori Reese (1-4) added hits for UVa in the 1-0 defeat.

With the loss, UVa’s record falls to 12-18 overall, 0-2 in the ACC. The Cavaliers have now lost eight consecutive games, and finished their spring break trip with a record of 4-9. Virginia will return to action on Tuesday, March 23 when the Cavaliers travel to Radford, Va. to face the Radford Highlanders in a double-header scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m.

Virginia       0 0 0 0 0 0 0      0  2  3South Florida  0 3 2 1 1 0        7  9  1   Virginia       0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  0  6  0South Florida  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1  1  8  2