VILLANOVA, Pa. – Paige Rauch pitched seven solid innings and helped her own cause with a record-breaking home run in the bottom of the first inning to help Villanova to a 6-2 victory over Penn in Game 1 of a doubleheader Wednesday afternoon at the VU Softball Stadium.
 
Rauch's first inning bomb, her 35^th in the Blue and White, established a new program record for career homers. She recorded 16 home runs in her season at Fordham before joining the Wildcats in 2019.
 
The Wildcats improved to 17-8 overall while the Quakers fell to 2-3 on the 2021 season.
 
After the Quakers were retired in order in the top of the first by Rauch, Angela Giampolo led off the bottom of the first with a double off the wall in left center field. Giampolo advanced to third on a wild pitch just before Rauch launched a bomb far over the fence in right center field to stake the Wildcats to a 2-0 lead before Penn recorded an out.
 
Penn designated hitter Julia Mortimer cut the Quakers' deficit in half with a long home run of her own leading off the top of the second inning.
 
Villanova earned consecutive walks to begin the bottom of the second inning. A Dani Dabroski RBI single through the middle extended the Villanova lead to 3-1. Giampolo was hit by a pitch and that was followed by a sacrifice fly to center field off the bat of Rauch to move the margin to 4-1. A smooth double steal produced run No. 5 and a Chloe Smith single plated another to move the lead to 6-1.
 
A home run by the Quakers' Sarah Schneider gave Penn its second run of the day in the top of the third inning.
 
Rauch settled in from there, working around a fifth inning error to keep the Quakers off the scoreboard in that frame. Penn picked up a single and a walk in the top of the sixth inning but Rauch shut the bid for a rally down with a strikeout of Penn's Laurel McKelvey to maintain the four-run edge.
 
Dabroski worked out a walk to open the bottom half of the sixth inning for the Wildcats. Giampolo then laced her second hit of the day, a solid single, to center field to set up a pair of runners for the middle of the Nova lineup. A deep fly by Smith advanced the runners to second and third with two out but the Wildcats were unable to add to their cushion.
 
Penn got two runners on board in the top of the seventh but Rauch struck out the side to put this one into the Wildcats' win column.