Virginia Takes 2-1 Victory Over Radford

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia softball team (14-25) defeated Radford (14-25) by a score of 2-1 on Tuesday (April 20) at Palmer Park, returning home after two weeks of play on the road.

The Cavaliers built the early 2-0 lead and, after surrendering a run in the sixth, shut things down in the seventh to pick up the victory over the Highlanders.

Aly Rayle (3-5) got the win, working 5.2 innings in the start. Rayle (Herndon, Va.) allowed one run on four hits with four strikeouts and did not walk a batter. Mikayla Houge (Collins, Iowa) picked up her third save of the season as she worked the final 1.1 innings, allowing one hit and striking out one.

Jessie Marvin (6-13) took the loss for Radford, allowing two runs on eight hits with a walk and two strikeouts.

Virginia scored its first run in the first when Arizona Ritchie (Stafford, Va.) dropped a sac bunt to bring in Katie Goldberg (Atlanta, Ga.) from third. A second run came in the fourth when Mikaila Fox (Ocean Springs, Miss.) singled to left to score Tori Gilbert (Mechanicsville, Va.).

Radford got on the board in the sixth inning with a single up the middle from Destiny Freeman with runners at the corners, but the Cavaliers got the next batter to end the inning with the 2-1 lead. The Hoos shut things down from there to pick up the victory.

NOTES ON THE GAME
• With the win, the Hoos are now 11-11 in games played against Radford in Charlottesville and lead the overall series 23-19.
• Arizona Ritchie now has a hit in eight of the last 11 games and has reached base in nine of those 11 games.
• The RBI for Fox was her third of the season as she drove in the second run of the game Tuesday night.
• Katie Goldberg extended her team lead in runs scored to 19 with her run in the first inning on Tuesday.

FROM HEAD COACH JOANNA HARDIN
“We love playing at home. This is a great park and it’s comfortable for us. It was nice to be back at home in Charlottesville and at Palmer Park. It was great to see us grind it out after a tough weekend of games and lots of travel in the last two weeks. I was proud of the effort, the fight and the grit. The pitchers attacked the zone well and got some big outs in big moments. Defensively, we played solid and had a big play in foul territory by Leah Boggs and she came up with some timely hits. We need to continue to execute with runners in scoring position and take the things we’ve been working on in practice and saw tonight with us as we move forward.”

UP NEXT FOR THE HOOS
Virginia will go back out on the road on Wednesday (April 21) for a 4 p.m. game at Liberty on ESPN+.