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May. 1, 2005
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia softball team tallied five extra base hits, but fell one run short as it dropped a 6-5 decision to Virginia Tech Sunday (May 1) at The Park. Despite the loss, UVa took two of three games from the Hokies and finish regular season Atlantic Coast Conference play with a 9-8 record and are the third seed in the ACC Tournament. Virginia finishes the regular season with a 29-30 record. Virginia Tech improves to 38-20 overall and 4-13 in the ACC.
The Hokies took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning with an unearned run. Kelly Brown walked to lead off the game and moved to second on a UVa infield error. After a sacrifice bunt moved Brown to third, she scored on Megan Evans’ single through the right side of the infield. Virginia came right back to score two runs in the bottom half of the first. With one out, second-year second baseman Elea Crockett (Tucson, Ariz./University) continued her hot hitting with a sharp single to right field. Third-year All-American third baseman Sara Larquier (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs) then laced a double off the left field wall to score Crockett from first. After a groundout moved Larquier to third, she scored when first-year shortstop Lindsey Preuss (La Plata, Md./La Plata) hit a double to left center.
Virginia Tech jumped back in front 5-2 with four runs in the fourth inning. Ciara Chaffee laid down a suicide squeeze bunt to score Kathleen Jones with the first run of the inning. Brown and Caitlin Murphy followed with RBI singles and then Alisia Narodowski drove in Brown with the fourth run of the inning with a double to center field. The Cavaliers closed to 5-3 with a run in the bottom of the fourth. Second-year designated player Brooke Sorber (Alexandria Va./Mount Vernon) drew a one-out walk. She moved to second on third-year center fielder Jackie Greer’s (Portage, Mich./Portage Northern) sacrifice bunt. After a walk to third-year right fielder Jessica Taylor (Philadelphia, Pa./Germantown Academy), Crockett singled to right field to bring home Sorber.
The Hokies extended their lead to 6-3 with a single tally in the sixth. Theresa Walsh hit a one-out single to center and scored on Brown’s double to right center. UVa answered Tech’s run with one of its own in the bottom half of the sixth. Greer hit a one-out single to right field and Crockett drew a walk to put runners on first and second. Larquier then hit a shallow double to right center that fell between several Hokie fielders to score Greer from second to make the score 6-4. It was Larquier’s school-record tying 19th double of the season. In the seventh, UVa closed to within 6-5 on first-year first baseman Whitney Holstun’s (Escondido, Calif./Escondido) solo home run to center field.
Second-year Coty Tolar (Marietta, Ga./Lassiter) took the loss in the circle and fell to 12-14 on the season. In 3.1 innings, Tolar allowed three runs (two earned) on four hits with one walk. Third-year Erin Horn (Tallahassee, Fla./Leon) relieved Tolar in the fourth inning and allowed three runs on five hits in two innings of work. Horn struck out one batter and walked two. Holstun pitched the final 1.2 innings and retired all five batters she faced. Katie Maynard (17-11) earned the complete-game victory for Virginia Tech. She allowed five runs on 10 hits with four walks and three strikeouts.
Crockett, Larquier and Holstun each had two hits for the Cavaliers. Crockett went 6-for-8 with two walks, seven RBI, and three runs scored in the series.
The Cavaliers are idle until the 2005 ACC Tournament which takes place May 12-15 at the University of Maryland Terrapin Softball Complex in College Park, Md.