VILLANOVA, Pa.—Sophomore first baseman Chloe Smith (Sacramento, Calif.) and sophomore catcher Ally Jones (Brielle, N.J.) each hit home runs as Villanova (6-7) rallied from a five-run deficit to finish off a series sweep with an 8-6 victory over Hofstra (1-4) at the Villanova Softball Complex on Sunday afternoon. Senior second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.) drove in the go-ahead runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift the Wildcats to their sixth win in the last seven games.
 
Smith and Jones each had two hits and two RBI for Villanova, which trailed 5-0 when it came to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning. A two-run shot to left-center by Jones for her second home run of the season trimmed the deficit to 5-3, while a five-run outburst in the home half of the sixth put the Wildcats on top and secured the three-game weekend sweep. Villanova won both games of a doubleheader on Saturday by scores of 6-0 and 9-8.
 
Senior starting pitcher Anissa Amarillas (Placentia, Calif.) pitched a completed game to earn her first win of the season. Three fielding errors by the Wildcats in the first three innings helped the Pride score four unearned runs, and Amarillas wound up yielding just two earned runs on seven hits while walking two and striking out three in her 19^th career complete game.
 
Villanova is starting to round into form offensively, with a .303 team batting average and 17 extra-base hits over six games in the past week. The power threats up and down the lineup mean that the Wildcats are never out of a game, which was never truer than in Sunday's come-from-behind affair.
 
Smith hit a solo home run that just stayed inside the right field pole with one out in the sixth inning to get Villanova to within a run at 5-4. Jones followed with a line drive double down the right field line and freshman pinch hitter Emily Orr (Hillsborough, N.J.) drilled a ball back up the middle that hit the second base bag and went airborne for a single which moved junior pinch runner Erin Gray (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) to third. Sophomore left fielder Dani Dabroski (Cedar Grove, N.J.) hit a fielder's choice grounder to short and Gray beat the throw home to tie the game at 5-5.
 
Giampolo came to the plate with runners at second and third with one out and hit a sinking liner to right which evaded the right fielder's attempt at a shoestring catch and fell in for a two-run single as the Wildcats took their first lead of the game. The ball wound up rolling all the way to the wall for a two-base error which allowed Giampolo to advance all the way to third, where she was in position to score on a sacrifice fly by senior right fielder Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.). 
 
The insurance run was a key one on a day with a gusty swirling wind that knocked some fly balls down and gave others just a bit of extra lift. Amarillas surrendered a one-out solo home run to Jaycee Ruberti in the top of the seventh inning but got cleanup hitter Meghan Giordano to ground out to second and then struck out Chelsea Manto for the final out of the game.
 
Villanova began its comeback with three two-out runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Kern led off that inning with a hard-hit double up the middle and junior Ryan Henry (Ramsey, N.J.) was at first base with two away when Smith hit a long fly ball to the wall in center field. That fly fell in for an RBI double which scored Henry with the Wildcats first run, and Jones drove a 2-1 offering over the fence in left-center to make the score 5-3 as Villanova stormed back into the contest.
 
Kristin Hallam led off the game for Hofstra with a first inning single and Kayla Wilson reached on a fielding error to immediately set the table for a run-scoring inning. They each scored on Giordano's two-run double through the left side later in the inning. In the third inning, Giordano and Manto successively reached on fielding errors with one out and were at second and third with two away when Alexis Goeke hit a two-run single to double the Pride lead to 4-0. With runners at the corners, Angelina Ioppolo got into a rundown between first and second base which allowed Goeke to score from third before Ioppolo was tagged out to end the inning.
 
Villanova will play a midweek doubleheader at Towson this coming Wednesday before traveling to Butler to open BIG EAST play next weekend.