March 9, 2008

Box Score

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Playing its fourth and fifth games in a span of less than 30 hours at the Under Armour Invitational, Villanova (5-9) was defeated by Missouri (10-4) and Central Michigan (5-1) at the Moore Complex on the last day of its spring trip to Florida.

Heavy rain during the first two days of the tournament forced virtually the entire schedule of games to be crammed into two days on Saturday and Sunday. After playing three games on Saturday, the Wildcats were back on the field for games at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.

In the morning game against Missouri, the Tigers scored in each of the first five innings to pull away from what started out as a back-and forth game. Villanova scored twice in the top of the first inning and Missouri eventually tied the score with single runs in the first and second.

The Wildcats briefly took the lead back with two runs in the top of the third inning, but the Tigers answered with three in the bottom half and added three more runs in the fourth inning and two in the fifth.

Junior Meghan Morese (Laguna Hills, Calif.) went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two runs batted in for Villanova. She had run-scoring doubles and then scored herself in both the first and third innings. Senior Jessica Curtis (Yorba Linda, Calif.) scored the other two Wildcat runs, while sophomore Jess O'Boyle (Verona, N.J.) and freshman Kirsten Jelinski (Los Angeles, Calif.) each had RBIs.

In the afternoon game against Central Michigan, the Wildcats never recovered from an early deficit. The Chippewas scored twice in the top of the first inning and Villanova was limited to three hits in the contest. The lone Wildcat run came in the bottom of the sixth inning when Morese led off with a walk, took second on a groundout and scored on an error.

Villanova will have the next week off before opening its home schedule on Tuesday, March 18 with a doubleheader against Niagara.