VILLANOVA, Pa.—Senior shortstop Julia DaCosta (North Attleboro, Mass.) dove to her left to catch a hard line drive up the middle for the second out of the seventh inning and senior pitcher Anissa Amarillas (Placentia, Calif.) made a pair of nice plays on hard shots back to the circle as Villanova (23-10, 7-1 BIG EAST) completed a three-game sweep of Providence (2-10, 1-7 BIG EAST) with a 2-1 victory at the Villanova Softball Complex on Sunday afternoon. The win is the 20^th in the last 23 games for the Wildcats, who limited the Friars to just two runs scored over the three games this weekend.
 
Amarillas (5-3, 3.32 ERA) came in to pitch with a runner at first and two outs in the top of the fifth inning. The score was tied 1-1 and the first pitch Amarillas threw to Providence leadoff batter Jacque Harrington was a hard chopper on which Amarillas lunged to her right to snare the ball on one hop and make the throw to first to end the inning. Villanova would go on to take the lead in the bottom of the fifth and hold on with more strong defense over the final two innings.
 
In the sixth inning, leadoff batter Lauren Nunez rolled a ball towards shortstop that took a bad hop and caromed over DaCosta's glove for a leadoff single. Amarillas then got ahead of Lyndsey Evix with a 1-2 count and induced a hard grounder back to the mound which she fielded and started a 1-6-3 double play to thwart the chances for a big inning. The next two batters singled to put the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base before Amarillas got pinch hitter Molly McGarry to pop up to second on the first pitch.
 
After striking out Gianna Magrino on eight pitches to start the seventh inning Amarillas faced Elysia Cunnigan who drilled a 1-0 pitch that looked destined for a single to center field. DaCosta was shading towards the middle and laid out to make a highlight-reel shoestring catch, with the ball firmly settling into her outstretched glove as the home plate umpire looked on and immediately signaled the out call. That was all but the last gasp for the Friars as Amarillas got Sarah Gunderson to groundout to second to end the game.
 
Senior starting pitcher Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) led off the bottom of the first inning with her seventh home run of the season and the Wildcats later manufactured a run in the home half of the fifth inning to take the lead for good. Junior center fielder Sydney Hayes (Douglassville, Pa.) one-hopped the left field fence for a leadoff double in the fifth inning and advanced to third on a passed ball while sophomore first baseman Victoria Sebastian (Ridgewood, N.J.) was looking to bunt Hayes over. With the runner now at third, Sebastian changed her approach and flied out to center for a sacrifice fly which scored Hayes with the eventual winning run.
 
Rauch hit a 1-0 pitch over the center field fence in the first inning for an early 1-0 lead and pitched 4 2/3 innings on the mound. She walked none and struck out six while scattering five hits, including a solo home run by Harrington with one out in the top of the third inning which tied the score at 1-1. Rauch retired seven straight after the home run though, and allowed just one more base runner when pinch hitter Crista San Antonio singled with two outs in the fifth just before Amarillas came in to pitch.
 
The only other hit for Villanova aside from the homer by Rauch and the double by Hayes was a spinning single through the right side by junior catcher Ryan Henry (Ramsey, N.J.) in the bottom of the fourth inning. She hit the first pitch she saw that inning with a lot of backspin up the first base line, but the ball reversed course and bounced back towards the hole between first and second as the first baseman Magrino moved towards the line to field the ball.
 
Friars pitcher Daniela Alvarez (1-5, 2.60 ERA) gave up two runs (one earned) on the three hits while walking none and striking out five in the complete game loss. She threw 49 of her 59 pitches on the day for strikes.
 
Since opening the season with a 3-7 record through their first 10 games the Wildcats have reeled off a 20-3 stretch which included an 11-game winning streak. Villanova is one of two BIG EAST teams with only one loss in conference play, with DePaul (9-1) percentage points ahead of the Wildcats at the top of the standings.
 
Villanova wrapped up a 12-game homestand with Sunday's game and will now get set to play its next eight games on the road. A midweek doubleheader at Delaware State is first up in the stretch on the road. The teams met at Villanova earlier this month and the Wildcats swept two games by score of 8-0 and 11-2.