Final Stats

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Madeira Beach, Fla. - Playing in their second game of the Madeira Beach Spring Invitational Friday night, Villanova (0-2, 0-0 BIG EAST) fell in a heartbreaker to the Manhattan Jaspers by a 6-5 margin in eight innings.

Chase Snell would get the Villanova offense going as she led off the top of the second inning with a double. After a Nikki Alden strike out, Mackenzie Tilles singled advancing Snell to third. Two batters later sophomore Tianah Hathaway singled home Snell to give Villanova a 1-0 lead.

Next batter was Brittany Husk who singled knocking in Tilles for the 2-0 lead. Husk would advance to second on the throw therefore allowing Hathaway to score giving the Wildcats a 3-0 lead.

Villanova's bats wouldn't go quiet as Shea Palmer had an RBI single scoring Husk for the 4-0 lead. Dana Morris would single advancing Palmer to second which brought Sierra McConnell to the plate. McConnell RBI singled home Palmer giving the 'Cats a 5-0 advantage.

In total, Villanova had seven hits in the second inning.

Jordan Prutzer got the start on the mound for Villanova after missing much of last season with an ACL injury. Prutzer went 3.0 innings giving up only one run on two hits. Manhattan would get on the board as Elena Bowman doubled in the bottom of the third inning scoring both Lauren Pitney and Alexa Dawid to slice into the Wildcat lead at 5-2.

The Jaspers would tighten the game in the bottom half of the fifth inning as Briana Matazinsky belted a two-run homerun to cut the Villanova lead to 5-4.

After mustering one hit in the top half of the sixth inning, Villanova's Brette Lawrence pitched her way out a jam in the bottom half of the inning.

The Jaspers' Kat Prevo singled to lead off the inning. Madison Bailey pinch ran for Prevo and advanced to second after Meredith Bryant popped out to Jessica Angersbach behind the plate. Lawrence would retire the next two Manhattan batters to preserve the 5-4 Villanova lead.

After putting runners on second and third with two outs in the top of the seventh inning, the Wildcats couldn't tack on any insurance runs heading into the bottom half of the inning.

Freshman Kalee Smith made her collegiate debut in the bottom of seventh inning in relief of Lawrence. After walking the first batter, Bowman singled up the middle for the Jaspers putting runners on first and second with no outs.

Jenn Vazquez RBI singled up the middle scoring Lauren Pitney to knot the game up at 5-5. With Prutzer back in pitching for Villanova, Matazinsky reached base on a fielder's choice putting runners on the corners with one out.

Matazinsky would advance to second on a wild pitch. Stephanie Reinhardt would single to third base with all the runners holding loading the bases with one out for Prevo.

Prutzer would induce a 5-2-3 double play to get out the jam and send the game to extra innings.

Villanova would go down in order in the top half of the eighth inning.

Manhattan would win the game in the bottom half of the eighth inning as Meredith Bryant, who was the ITB (International Tie Breaker) runner scored on a wild pitch. Villanova had 10 total hits total in the game. Kalee Smith (0-1) took the loss.

McConnell and Hathaway each had two hits in the game for Villanova.

The 'Cats will play two more games tomorrow starting with the Georgia Southern Eagles at 4:00 p.m. and the North Florida Ospreys at 6:30 p.m.

Be sure to follow the team socially on Twitter @VUSoftball, Instagram @novasoftball and Facebook to stay up to date with the latest news scores and highlights from the Wildcats throughout the season.