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Virginia Plays at Longwood Tuesday
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia softball team (18-13, 5-4 ACC) begins a stretch of midweek non-conference games with a doubleheader Tuesday at Longwood. The two teams will play at 3:30 p.m. in Farmville, Va., and live statistics will be linked on VirginiaSports.com.
The Cavaliers are coming off a series win at Boston College over the weekend. UVa won the first game, 7-4, and the third game, 5-1, to claim the series victory. Junior pitcher Melanie Mitchell (White Plains, Md.) allowed one earned run and struck out 23 batters in her 14 innings of work on the weekend. Junior Taylor Williams (Woodbridge, Va.) hit .571 over the three-game stretch and junior Kristen Hawkins (Elizabeth, Pa.) hit .500 with a .778 on-base percentage.
On the season, Virginia is led by junior Alex Skinkis (La Palma, Calif.), who is batting .310 and is second on the team with 27 hits. Senior Giannina Cipolloni (Philadelphia, Pa.) adds a .286 average with a squad-best 28 hits and 19 stolen bases. Sophomore Marcy Bowdren (Fairfax Station, Va.) contributes a .271 average to go along with a team-high 22 RBI and 20 runs.
Mitchell is 12-7 on the year with a 1.59 ERA in the circle for Virginia. She has struck out 160 batters with just 14 walks in 119 innings of work and limits opposing batters to a .209 average. Freshman pitcher Rachel Gillen (Wilmington, Del.) is 5-5 on the year with a 3.78 ERA and senior pitcher Stephanie Coates (Gloucester, Va.) is 1-1 with a 3.50 ERA.
Longwood is 23-14 on the season after dropping a doubleheader Saturday at South Carolina by scores of 7-2 and 12-5. The Lancers are led offensively by senior Ashley Kramer, who boasts a .370 average. Freshman Megan Baltzell hits .364 and paces the squad with 30 hits, 23 runs, seven home runs and 27 RBI.
Junior Ashley Cornell leads the Longwood pitching corps with a 2.99 ERA and a 7-4 record in 70.1 innings. Freshman Libby Morris (10-7, 5.51 ERA) has thrown 11 complete games and seen the most action with 100.1 innings of work and junior Brooke Short (6-3, 4.06 ERA) has seven complete games in 58.2 innings.
Longwood owns a 13-10 record in the all-time series with the Cavaliers and has won the last four meetings after sweeping doubleheaders in 2010 and 2011. The last Virginia victory came in 2009 when the two teams split the twinbill in Charlottesville.