TOWSON, Md.—Senior right fielder Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) tied career highs with four hits and four runs batted in as Villanova (8-7) pulled away from Towson (7-5) for an 11-2 win in the second game of a doubleheader at Tiger Softball Stadium on Wednesday evening. Rauch went 4-for-5 with three runs scored and the four RBI, including a bases-clearing three-run triple in the seventh inning. The win is the eighth in the last nine games for the Wildcats, who also won the opening game of Wednesday's twin-bill by a 5-2 score.
 
Sophomore first baseman Chloe Smith (Sacramento, Calif.) and sophomore Ally Jones (Brielle, N.J.) each had two hits for Villanova, which also took advantage of six errors by the Tigers to jump out to a big lead early on. Senior second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.) and senior shortstop Julia DaCosta (North Attleboro, Mass.) scored two runs apiece as the Wildcats nudged their record above .500 for the first time this season.
 
Villanova scored five runs on just two hits in the second and third innings to give more than enough run support to junior starting pitcher Sara Kennedy (Newtown, Conn.) who went six strong innings to earn her third win of the season. Kennedy (3-3) scattered seven hits but also had six strikeouts without a walk on a day when she induced 11 groundball outs among the 18 outs she recorded. A groundball specialist throughout her career, Kennedy entered the game with a career 2.5-to-1 groundball-flyball ratio.
 
With the game scoreless in the top of the second inning, each of the first three Wildcats batters of the inning hit the ball to third base. DaCosta and Jones each reached on fielding errors before junior center fielder Sydney Hayes (Douglassville, Pa.) sacrificed the runners to second and third with one away. Sophomore left fielder Dani Dabroski (Cedar Grove, N.J.) followed with an RBI groundout to short to drive in the first run of the game.
 
In the third inning, Rauch singled and Kern reached on an error to set the table for a big inning. Smith singled home Rauch with the first of four runs in the inning, while later in the frame Jones and Hayes drew consecutive walks with the bases loaded to force in two runs. Dabroski was later safe on an error committed on a fielder's choice hit to third, with DaCosta scoring on the play to extend the Villanova lead to 5-0.
 
Just as they head in the first game of the day, the Wildcats put the game out of reach with a burst of offense in the final two innings. In the sixth inning, run-scoring singles by Rauch and Smith pushed the score to 7-0 before Towson got the runs back in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Chloe Poulich and a sacrifice fly by Gracyn Houmis. Kennedy escaped any further trouble that inning by striking out the next two batters.
 
After singles by Jones and Dabroski in the seventh inning, Giampolo walked to load the bases with one out and Rauch drilled a triple off the right field fence to unload them and bring in three runs. It was the first triple of the season by a Villanova batter and came off the bat of Rauch, who led the Atlantic 10 in triples while playing for Fordham as a freshman in 2018. She wound up scoring on a wild pitch to account for the final run of the game. Senior pitcher Anissa Amarillas (Placentia, Calif.) retired the side in order in the bottom of the seventh inning to close out the game.
 
Villanova opens conference play this weekend with a three-game series at Butler. The series will be played as a single game on Friday at 3 p.m. followed by a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 12 p.m.