Showdown With Hokies Next for Hoos at Palmer Park

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The University of Virginia softball program waited months for the big day to arrive. And then, when the day finally dawned, the Cavaliers waited some more.

The ACC tournament, hosted for the first time by UVA, began with four first-round games Wednesday. The Cavaliers didn’t take the field at Palmer Park until the last one, which didn’t start until 8:05 p.m.

A long day ended happily for the Wahoos. In the bottom of the seventh inning, pinch-runner Kamyria Woody-Giggetts scored from second on a throwing error to give No. 6 seed Virginia a 2-1 win over No. 11 seed Pittsburgh.

To host a postseason game at Palmer Park was “amazing,” said UVA junior Macee Eaton, whose two-out home run tied the game at 1-1 in the sixth inning. “With all the fans that showed up, the atmosphere, and it being a night game, the adrenaline was really high. Our whole team fed off all the energy in the stands.”

Senior right-hander Eden Bigham, who struck out seven and walked none in four innings of relief, earned the win. Like Eaton, she marveled at the atmosphere Wednesday night.

“I've never heard Palmer this loud, so that was exciting,” Bigham said. “That maybe created some jitters, but good ones for sure.”

THE HOOS ARE MOVING ON‼️#GoHoos | #4for40 | #PeopleMakeThePlace pic.twitter.com/pvsfPByz7A

— Virginia Softball (@UVASoftball) May 7, 2026

With the walk-off win, Virginia improved to 4-0 against Pitt this season. Now comes a bigger challenge for the Hoos. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, in the last ACC quarterfinal, UVA (38-12) meets No. 3 seed Virginia Tech (44-9).

The Hokies, who had a first-round bye, are ranked No. 13 in the latest coaches’ poll. The Hoos are No. 23.

UVA is 25-4 at home this season. Two of those defeats were to Tech, which bounced back from a series-opening loss to Virginia at Palmer Park to win 5-2 on April 10 and 5-0 on April 11.

“Every game with Tech is a battle,” Bigham said.

“There’s no secrets between them and us,” UVA head coach Joanna Hardin said. “There's no secrets with anyone on our path at this point that we could get. So I think it's just about execution and going for it [Thursday night].”

In its three-game sweep of Pitt in late March, Virginia faced pitcher Kyra Pittman only once, in the finale. The Hoos prevailed 4-1 that day but totaled only five hits off Pittman, and she silenced their bats for most of the game Wednesday night.

Through five innings, UVA had only one hit off Pittman and trailed 1-0. In the sixth, though, Eaton, who’d been named to the All-ACC first team earlier in the day, belted her 12^th homer of the season, and the energy in the stadium shifted noticeably.

“All the confidence in the world in her,” Bigham said of Eaton. “She's awesome, and we knew she was going to get it done.”

Hardin said there was “probably a deep breath of relief a little bit there. She’s had such quality at-bats. She’s seeing it really, really well. She's a professional at this point. So excited. It just broke through a little bit, and I'm just happy for her to have that moment. That's huge. That's a big moment in her back pocket that she can lean on when we feel that pressure throughout the postseason.”

In the top of the seventh, Bigham struck out the side, and her offense took it from there. Redshirt freshman Reagan Hickey led off with a double to left, and Woody-Giggetts came in to run for her. The next batter, Kelsey Hackett, laid down a bunt that Pittman fielded. But Pittman’s throw to first missed its mark, and Woody-Giggetts raced home to end the game.

Hackett, a senior who starts in left field, suffered a non-contact leg injury after crossing first base and lay supine on the field for several minutes before being helped to her feet. Hackett was more concerned with the game’s outcome than with her injury initially,  Hardin said.

“That was the first question she asked: ‘Did we score? Is the game over?’ ” Hardin said. “We're like, ‘Yes, we got the run.’ ”

Had the Cavaliers’ pitchers not been so dominant Wednesday night, the result might have been different. Senior left-hander Courtney Layne started in the circle. She struggled with her control in the second, when Pitt scored its run, but allowed only one hit in her three innings. Bigham retired seven of the final eight batters she faced.

“I feel like we always want to keep as many runs off the board as we can,” Bigham said. “but I think the mentality going in is just giving our offense the support they need. They're there to back us up when we're giving up more runs than we like. I think it's just fighting for each other. We may have not performed on all sides of the ball today, but tomorrow's a new day, and I'm confident that we're going to get it together.”

Trailing 1-0, Virginia was down to its final four outs when Eaton came to the plate in the sixth. Even so, she said, she didn’t put any extra pressure on herself.

“Honestly, for me, when I get in the box, everything goes silent,” Eaton said. “I kind of get tunnel vision, and I just tell myself I'm going to get the job done. I don't think about anything negative. I know they're going to come in my zone, and when they do, I'm going to make them pay for it. And it just so happened today it went pretty far.”

Overall, it was a frustrating game for UVA hitters, but Eaton said she and her teammates “just kept on telling each other, ‘We still got it. There's still a game left. We are still confident, and we know we're going to get the job done.’ ”

Macee Eaton just wants to win!

She joined the studio crew after the Hoos walked off the Panthers to advance at the ACC Championship at Palmer Park. #GoHoos | #4for40 | #PeopleMakeThePlace pic.twitter.com/8CpVWq1d1I

— Virginia Softball (@UVASoftball) May 7, 2026

Hardin acknowledged that this was not just another game for her team.

“It’s postseason, right?” she said. “Everyone's 0-0. The nerves, the excitement, it's there. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was excited and had the little butterflies in my stomach to start the day. So the more you get there, the more you do it, the more comfortable you are. And not only is it postseason, you're hosting it at home. There's a different pride there, and you feel a little pressure. And so that's probably a part of the little slow start, but we just stayed in it the whole time, and I think that I'm really proud of that. We just kept swinging. We knew they were going to fall.”

If the atmosphere at Palmer Park was good Wednesday night, it figures to be electric for the Hoos’ clash with the Hokies.

“It’s going to be packed,” said Hardin, who’s in her 10^th season at UVA. “We expect it to be a championship environment. And so how we handle that, how they handle that, is going to be really, really important as well. It's going to be loud. How do we communicate? How do we stay in it?”

Hardin lauded the Cavaliers’ fans for their support Wednesday night.

“They were so invested,” she said. “They were so into it. And so I’m super grateful for them, and we're going to need them to show up [Thursday night]. I think it's going to be a dogfight. Again, we can do all the scouting you want. There's not a lot of secrets between the two of us. So it's going to just have to come down to the last punch.”

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