Virginia Kicks Off Blue-Orange Fall Series Friday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia softball team will kick off its Blue-Orange Series, a five-game series to close out the fall, with a single game on Friday (Nov. 5) at 3 p.m. at Palmer Park.

The series will continue with a single game at 9 a.m. on Saturday (Nov. 6) and continue next week with games at 2:45 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, and conclude with a 4 p.m. contest on Friday.

Admission to any of Virginia’s home fall games at Palmer Park is free and open to the public.

Captains for both teams – Kate Covington and Mikayla Houge for the Blue, and Tori Gilbert and Savanah Henley for the Orange – participated in a draft on Tuesday afternoon to select their teams. The Blue team won the ability to decide if they wanted the first overall pick or home field advantage throughout the series and elected to take the first overall pick.

The captains were determined through a weekly competition called the Cavalier Cup in which players accrued points through their performance and execution throughout the fall with two pitchers and two field players earning the right to be captains.

“Blue Crew is feeling very confident going into this series,” said team captains Kate Covington and Mikayla Houge. “We are going to play aggressively across the board, make adjustments quickly, and keep our foot on the gas pedal the whole time. We’re looking for our offense to attack pitches, get our lead off batters on and execute with runners in scoring position. Our pitchers are looking to get lead off outs and our defense is going to play solid behind them. O-squad better watch out, Blue Crew is out to win.”

“We are really feeling good going into the series,” said Orange team captains Savanah Henley and Tori Gilbert. “We have girls who are eager to play and are willing to do anything to win. In the series we expect to see a lot of smiling faces and good vibes flowing throughout the team.  As we said before, our approach is to keep the good vibes flowing. Offensively we are going to try to do things that create chaos on defense in order to score runs.”

BLUE-ORANGE SERIES SCHEDULE
Friday, Nov. 5 – 3 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 6 – 9 a.m.
Monday, Nov. 8 – 2:45 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 9 – 2:45 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 12 – 4 p.m.

BLUE TEAM                                           ORANGE TEAM
Kelly Ayer                                                   Shelby Barbee
Abigail Barber                                           Mikaila Fox
Gabby Baylog                                            Donna Friedman
Leah Boggs                                                Tori Gilbert*
Sarah Coon                                                Madi Harris
Kate Covington*                                       Savanah Henley*
Katie Goldberg                                          Reece Holbrook
Sydney Hartgrove                                    Emma McBride
Mikayla Houge*                                       Morgan Murphy
Ashley Jennings                                       Arizona Ritchie
Kailyn Jones                                             Abby Weaver
Aly Rayle                                                   Madi Wilson
Mackenzie Wooten                                 Bailey Winscott
Clare Zureich