STORRS, Conn.—Senior first baseman Julia DaCosta (North Attleboro, Mass.) led off the sixth inning with a home run that put #2 seed Villanova (34-13) ahead to stay in a 14-5 win over #4 seed Butler (17-21-1) in an elimination game in the 2021 BIG EAST Softball Championship Presented by JEEP at Burrill Family Field on Friday afternoon. Senior second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.) and junior shortstop Megan Kern (Royersford, Pa.) each homered and drove in four runs to power the Wildcats into Championship Saturday and a showdown against #3 seed Connecticut (22-18) on Saturday afternoon. Villanova has twice avoided elimination in the conference tournament and will have to tally two wins against the Huskies if it is to clinch its first-ever BIG EAST title.
 
Kern had a career-high four hits, homered for the second straight day and finished a triple shy of the cycle in the latest offensive onslaught by the Wildcats. Despite the final nine-run differential, the game was anything but lopsided and the outcome was not secured until Villanova scored 12 times in the final three innings and logged back-to-back five-run outbursts in the final two frames. Giampolo and senior pitcher Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) scored three runs apiece, and Rauch (19-3, 1.99 ERA) pitched six innings to get the win on the mound.
 
Big hits for the Wildcats were supplied up and down the lineup, including a swinging bunt single by junior center fielder Sydney Hayes (Douglassville, Pa.) and an RBI triple by sophomore left fielder Dani Dabroski (Cedar Grove, N.J.) which sustained a long turn at the plate in the top of the sixth inning. Eight of Villanova's 14 hits went for extra bases and the Wildcats finished just one run shy of tying the BIG EAST Championship record for runs in a game. The run total could even have been higher for Villanova, as junior designated player Ryan Henry (Ramsey, N.J.) hit a ball in the seventh inning which caromed off the top of the right field fence and back into play when its bounce could easily have taken the ball the other way over the wall.
 
Every bit of the stirring effort by the Wildcats was necessary to oust a Bulldogs team which had an inspired three-game say in the conference tournament after being the final seed to earn a spot in the championship field. Butler rallied to take the lead from Villanova in the bottom of the fourth inning and tied the game in the home half of the fifth before the Wildcats finally gained the upper hand.
 
Earlier in the game, much earlier it seemed, Giampolo drilled a home run to left field with nobody out in the top of the third inning to give Villanova a 2-0 lead. Rauch led off the inning with a four-pitch walk, one of 10 free passes she has been issued in 13 plate appearances in the tournament. Giampolo was down in the count 1-2 against Bulldogs starting pitcher Karli Ricketts but turned on the next offering and pulled it down the line for her fourth home run of the season. It was a record-setting home run, as the Wildcats have surpassed the school record total of 50 home runs hit during the 2019 season. Villanova has now homered 53 times in just 47 games in a 2021 season which will forever be remembered for a multitude of reasons.
 
There were two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the fourth inning when Butler started a three-run rally on a bunt single by eighth place hitter Alyssa Garcia. Bri Avery reached on an infield single and Lauren Fey brought home the first Bulldogs run with an RBI single to left. Maddie Moore followed with a two-run single to right as Butler grabbed a 3-2 lead, but Rauch struck out her counterpart Ricketts to end the inning.
 
Kern turned the tables in the top of the fifth inning with a line drive home run to right-center field. Rauch led off the inning and the Bulldogs opted to pitch to her, the first true at-bat in which Rauch had been challenged all week after both Connecticut and DePaul were burned recently by pitching around the Wildcats star. Rauch struck out this time around, but Villanova got the better end of the bargain anyway. Giampolo was hit by a pitch and Kern sent the first pitch she saw flying. Sophomore catcher Ally Jones (Brielle, N.J.) greeted new pitcher Alyssa Graves (6-5, 2.71 ERA) with a double off the fence in right-center, but the inning ended with the Wildcats clinging to the narrow 4-3 lead. Zoe Herdman homered for Butler in the bottom of the fifth inning to tie the score at four-all.
 
The go-ahead home run by DaCosta leading off the sixth inning made the score 5-4 and opened the floodgates. Dabroski's triple over the defense and to the wall in left field extended the Villanova lead to 6-4, Rauch walked and stole second, and Giampolo kept a two-run single just inside the third base bag for a four-run lead. Kern batted and singled back up the middle for an RBI single which made the score 9-4.
 
DaCosta batted again to lead off the seventh inning and once again started a five-run rally. She doubled to right-center and Hayes singled up the middle to drive in junior pinch runner Erin Gray (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.), then Hayes herself scored on a fielding error when Dabroski reached on a fielder's choice. Kern doubled home the third run of the inning, Jones hit a sacrifice fly for the second out and Henry put an emphatic finishing touch on the scoring barrage with her double halfway over the right field wall.
 
Villanova advances to the title game of the BIG EAST Championship for the fourth time in its history and the second straight tournament. Back in 2019 the Wildcats were defeated, 11-10, in the championship game by DePaul. Villanova has made 18 all-time appearances in the conference tournament and has won 10 elimination games all-time, but the Wildcats have never emerged as BIG EAST champions.
 
The championship game, or games as Villanova will hope for, will be the fifth time that the Wildcats and Huskies play each other in the past week. The teams closed the regular season with a three-game series at Villanova last weekend, a series which the Wildcats swept with hard-fought victories by scores of 1-0, 7-6 and 9-7. Connecticut posted a 4-3 win over Villanova on Thursday on the first day of the conference tournament. Saturday's action can be seen live on FS2 with John Fanta, Tracy Warren and Maria Trivelpiece calling the games.