Cavaliers Now

Excellent Defense, Timely Offense Help Virginia Softball Upset No. 3 Duke

Kathleen Boyce

Jade Hylton hits a home run for the Virginia softball team.
Jade Hylton hits a home run for the Virginia softball team. / Virginia Athletics

“And if you don’t know who the Hoos are, now you do.” After the final out of game three, the announcers commented on the feat Virginia had just pulled off - upsetting the third best team in the country twice in the same day.

Entering this series, Duke only had lost four games all season, boasting a 37-4 record. However, Virginia wasn’t intimidated in the least, and the Cavaliers played three one-run games and earned a hard-fought series win. The Hoos moved to 30-15 on the season and 13-8 in ACC play, good for fifth place and also a guaranteed spot in the ACC Tournament.

Game 1 (Friday 4/19): Duke 1, Virginia 0 (12 innings)

Game one was the definition of a pitcher’s duel, with the only run of the game coming in the 12th inning. Duke’s Jala Wright and Virginia’s Eden Bigham matched each other inning for inning for nine straight frames, and Madi Harris pitched two scoreless innings before Duke finally got a run on the board in the bottom of the twelfth. 

The Hoos didn’t have a lot of opportunities to score, as Jala Wright amassed 14 strikeouts in the game, but the defense was key for keeping the game scoreless for so long. Duke stranded runners on second and third in the eighth inning, the bases loaded in the ninth, and runners on first and second in the tenth. 

In the bottom of the twelfth, Duke got two runners on, and then an errant throw on a sacrifice bunt allowed the winning run to score from second base.

Game 2 (Saturday 4/20): Virginia 4, Duke 3

After the marathon game the night before, Virginia had to reset for a doubleheader the next day. Courtney Layne got the start for the Hoos, and she pitched four innings of one-run ball, with the only blemish being a sacrifice fly in the third inning.

In the top of the fourth, Kelly Ayer singled to center field and then Sarah Coon and Kelsey Hackett both had bunt singles to load the bases with no outs. After two ground balls led to force outs at home, there was a chance Virginia would squander the scoring opportunity. Instead, Jade Hylton crushed a ball to left field for the grand slam, giving Virginia its first runs of the series and a 4-1 lead.

The Blue Devils responded in the fifth inning with two sacrifice flies to bring the score to 4-3, and the Duke defense prevented Virginia from extending the lead at the plate. After Duke got its leadoff runner on in the bottom of the seventh with a single, Eden Bigham came in to close out the game. She got a groundout and then hit a batter, and then a single to center field loaded the bases with one out. 

With the winning run on second base, the Virginia defense came up with a clutch double play to end the game and tie the series. Courtney Layne was the winning pitcher and Eden Bigham earned the save, and Jade Hylton was the offensive MVP as her grand slam home run was the difference. 

Game 3 (Saturday 4/20): Virginia 3, Duke 2

After a 30 minute break between games, the two teams got ready to face off in the decisive game three. Jade Hylton continued her tear at the plate with a two-run homer in the top of the third. Kelsey Hackett checked in with an RBI single in the fourth inning to give UVA a 3-0 lead.

Mikayla Houge had a great start for Virginia with 5.2 innings. With just one strikeout in the outing, Houge kept the Blue Devils off balance and relied on her defense to make plays behind her. After five scoreless, she ran into trouble in the sixth inning, giving up an RBI triple and an RBI single. Madi Harris came in and shut down the threat to preserve a one-run lead. Harris continued to pitch in the seventh and secured the game three victory for UVA. This game was also Madi Harris’s tenth career save, giving her the program record.

This series was full of close games and tense moments, but Virginia stood strong in the pressure packed situations. Coming away with this series win is a huge statement for the team. The Hoos were briefly ranked in the Softball America Top 25 as the 24th team in the country, but the team fell out of the rankings after last week. Beating the third-best team in the country will certainly impact Virginia’s position for the next softball poll and more importantly, positions the Cavaliers well for a potential bid to the NCAA Tournament.

After the game one loss, head coach Joanna Hardin commended her team, saying she “saw a lot of fight [and] a lot of competitiveness” and that the team “played pretty fearlessly.” It wouldn’t have been surprising to see a team that got so close in game one struggle to rebound the next day, but instead, Virginia improved. 

The pride and joy on Coach Hardin’s face was apparent in her interview after the two victories on Saturday. When talking about her players, she stated “not one point in this whole weekend did they falter. Not one point did this team back down.”

Virginia will travel to Virginia Tech for a Tuesday night Commonwealth Clash rematch and then close out the regular season with a three-game series at Georgia Tech next weekend.

Published
Kathleen Boyce
KATHLEEN BOYCE

Kathleen Boyce is a contributing author for Cavaliers Now, covering primarily UVA volleyball, women's basketball, and softball. Kathleen is currently a fourth-year student at the University of Virginia.