STORRS, Conn.—The moment instantly became iconic in the history of Villanova Softball as the Wildcats streamed onto the field and into a dogpile in front of home plate to celebrate the first BIG EAST title in the program's history. Villanova (36-13) became champions the hard way, reeling off four consecutive victories in elimination games in the conference tournament after losing its opening game on Thursday afternoon. Championship Saturday at Burrill Family Field saw the #2 seed Wildcats defeat #3 seed Connecticut (28-24) on its home field, 5-1, to force a decisive final game which Villanova won by a 6-1 count. It is the first time since 2002 and the fifth time in the 32-year history of the BIG EAST Championship that a team has won the title after losing its opening game.
 
Senior pitcher Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament after starting all five games on the mound and pitching 28 of 35 innings for the Wildcats over three days. She also reached base safely in 16 of 21 plate appearances and put the deciding game in the championship out of reach with a three-run home run in the top of the seventh inning. Senior first baseman Julia DaCosta (North Attleboro, Mass.), senior second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.), junior shortstop Megan Kern (Royersford, Pa.) and Rauch were all named to the All-Tournament Team.
 


Head coach Bridget Orchard is in her third season leading her alma mater and has quickly built Villanova into a championship team that is on its way becoming an all-around powerhouse. Orchard previously won eight Atlantic 10 titles in 17 seasons at Fordham before coming back to take over the reins of a Wildcats program that she once starred on the field for. Orchard and her team will now await Villanova's destination in the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance when the selections are revealed live on ESPN2 on Sunday night.
 
The final out of the game came when senior pitcher Anissa Amarillas (Placentia, Calif.) struck out BIG EAST Rookie of the Year Jana Sanden for her third strikeout in five scoreless innings of relief in the championship game. Amarillas (7-3, 4.06 ERA) pointed at junior catcher Ryan Henry (Ramsey, N.J.), then dropped her glove as she and Henry embraced in front of the pitchers' circle. Villanova was finally able to let loose after a tense championship weekend which was filled with dramatic moments and unexpected plot twists from the very start.
 
It made for a disparate tale-of-the-tape between the games themselves and the final runs scored column for the weekend. Despite all five games the Wildcats played being close and hard-fought affairs, Villanova wound up outscoring its opponents 37-12 in the tournament as a result of scoring 28 runs from the fifth inning on. The two games against the tournament host Huskies on Saturday were each tied 1-1 through three innings before the Wildcats broke through in the sixth inning of the first contest and the fourth inning of the deciding game.
 
All six runs in the final game were delivered off the bats of Rauch and sophomore third baseman Chloe Smith (Sacramento, Calif.). It was Smith who gave Villanova the lead for good in the top of the fourth inning on a two-out single to right. Her double up the gap in right-center with two outs in the sixth inning made the score 3-1 before Rauch stamped the win with a long three-run blast to center field in the seventh inning. Smith had a huge game both at the plate and in the field, where she handled nine chances at the hot corner to wind up with two putouts and seven assists.
 
Connecticut scored a run in the first inning in both games on Saturday, but in each case did not score again after that. Rauch, who emptied the tank in giving her team 468 pitches over 28.0 innings pitched in the tournament, pitched the first two innings of the deciding game and scattered a run on two hits.
The momentum towards securing the championship started to build in the top of the third inning when sophomore left fielder Dani Dabroski (Cedar Grove, N.J.) reached on a two-out fielding error. Huskies starting pitcher Meghan O'Neil (10-7, 3.35 ERA) had retired the first eight Wildcats batters of the game before she mishandled Dabroski's roller back to the circle. All it took was the door being cracked open for Villanova to storm through. Connecticut pitched to Rauch with first base open after BIG EAST teams including the Huskies had almost completely avoided throwing anything in the strike zone to the BIG EAST Player and Pitcher of the Year over the final month of the regular season and during the conference tournamemt.
 
Rauch walked 13 times just this weekend, but in the third inning against O'Neil she dropped a 2-1 pitch into shallow left field to score Dabroski and tie the score at 1-1. In the bottom of the third was when Orchard chose to turn to Amarillas, her senior veteran who was the ace of the Wildcats staff as a freshman in 2018 before evolving into a steady veteran presence both in starting and relief roles over the past three seasons.
 
An infield single, a hit batter and a walk loaded the bases for the Huskies with one out in the home half of the third as Connecticut threatened to not only retake the lead but have a chance to break the game wide open. Amarillas retired power-hitting Huskies catcher Devon Casazza on an infield pop-up to third and got Makenzie Mason to ground to third to escape the scoring threat unscathed. With a runner at second one out in the bottom of the fifth inning – Villanova led 2-1 at this point – Amarillas struck out Sami Barnett and Casazza in succession to end the inning. She wound up retiring eight of the final nine batters in the game beginning with those two strikeouts.
 
The Wildcats plated single runs in the third, fourth and sixth innings with rallies that all started after there were two outs and nobody on. DaCosta doubled to right on the first pitch she saw from O'Neil in the top of the fourth inning and Smith followed by lining a 1-0 pitch into right-center to drive in the go-ahead run. Henry doubled off the fence in right field in the sixth inning and DaCosta walked before Smith's double into the gap scored junior pinch runner Erin Gray (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) for a 3-1 lead.
 
Junior center fielder Sydney Hayes (Douglassville, Pa.) and Dabroski singled to set the table in the top of the seventh inning. With anticipation of a title already keeping the Wildcats fans in attendance on the edge of their seats, Rauch crushed the first pitch she saw just to the left of the Burrill Family Field video board in right-center field as the Villanova dugout and fans erupted. So did Rauch, finally liberated after being forced to stare down one low-and-away pitch after another for seemingly weeks on end. In the Wildcats first four games of the conference tournament Rauch saw just 12 strikes out of the 68 pitches thrown to her.
 
DaCosta hit a team-best .412 (7-for-17) with two doubles and a home run in the conference tournament, while Kern and Giampolo spent the better part of the weekend driving in runs at every turn. Kern batted .368 (7-for-19) with a double, two homers and nine runs batted in. Giampolo went 5-for-15 (.333) with two home runs and 10 runs batted in. She hit a go-ahead and ultimately game-winning grand slam in the sixth inning of Saturday's opening game to force the deciding seventh game of the championship. Giampolo drew Rauch-like treatment in the third inning of the championship game when she was intentionally walked after Rauch's game-tying double.
 
Villanova vanquished one of its oldest BIG EAST opponents in Connecticut's first year back in the conference after a seven-year absence. The Huskies led the all-time series with the Wildcats by a 42-7 margin until just eight days ago, when the teams met for a three-game series at the Villanova Softball Complex to close out the regular season. Beginning with that series, the Wildcats have played six of their past eight games against the Huskies and won five of the six contests to reverse fortunes against the one-time conference power.
 
Orchard and her Villanova program have aspirations of being just that kind of dominant force in the BIG EAST for years to come. The first conference championship trophy and the NCAA Tournament berth that come with it are a big step towards realizing that dream.