VILLANOVA, Pa.—Senior second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.) drove in the tying and go-ahead runs with a one-out single in the bottom of the fifth inning and Villanova (32-12, 15-2 BIG EAST) rallied for a 9-7 win over Connecticut (20-18, 12-9 BIG EAST) in the regular season finale for both teams at the Villanova Softball Complex on Sunday afternoon. The win completed a three-game weekend sweep by the Wildcats, who tied a program record with their 15^th conference win of the year and set a new team mark with the season's .882 winning percentage in BIG EAST play. The final weekend of the regular season was a preview of the first day of the upcoming BIG EAST Championship hosted by the Huskies, as the #2 seed Villanova and #3 seed Connecticut will meet for the fourth straight time on Thursday afternoon.
 
The tournament field and seeding for the BIG EAST Championship was settled with Saturday's results but the Wildcats and Huskies nevertheless played each other as if there were postseason implications that could come out of Sunday's final regular season contest. Giampolo and junior shortstop Megan Kern (Royersford, Pa.) each drove in three runs as Villanova overcame deficits of 5-0 and 7-4 in a come-from-behind victory that was played in occasionally steady rain and which took nearly three hours to complete. Freshman relief pitcher Caroline Pellicano (Norristown, Pa.) was sensational in a possible early career turning point, as she tossed four scoreless innings with three strikeouts to earn her third win of the season.
 
Connecticut jumped on the board first with a five-run outburst in the top of the third inning, only to have the Wildcats roar back with four runs of their own in the bottom half. Senior offensive player Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) drew a one-out walk, Giampolo was hit by a pitch and sophomore third baseman Chloe Smith (Sacramento, Calif.) singled through the left side to load the bases with one out. That brought sophomore catcher Ally Jones (Brielle, N.J.) to the plate with the bags full and she worked a full count – something of a personal specialty – before taking ball four to force in Rauch with the first Villanova run of the game.
 
Kern batted with the bases loaded and two outs, and she fouled off consecutive 0-2 offerings before taking a ball and finally driving a hard-hit double off the fence in right-center field to clear the bases. It was one of a pair of two-base hits on the day for Kern, who also led off the bottom of the fifth with a double to start the Wildcats eventual game-winning rally.
 
The heaviest rain of the afternoon lasted for the better part of 30 minutes and coincided with the bottom of the third and top of the fourth innings. Slippery conditions may have contributed in part to a passed ball and a wild pitch in the top of the fourth inning, while a fielding error by Villanova helped the Huskies score a pair of unearned runs against freshman pitcher Alyssa Seidler (West Babylon, N.Y.) to recoup some of their lead and make the score 7-4 as the game tiptoed towards the two-hour mark before even four innings had been played.
 
Pellicano (3-1, 1.88 ERA) came on to pitch with a runner at second, one run in and nobody out in the top of the fourth inning. She quickly got a groundout to third and a sacrifice fly to right for the first two outs, then worked around a two-out double with a fly to right to end the inning. Pellicano allowed a leadoff single in the fifth inning and a one-out double in the sixth but retired the final five Connecticut batters of the game and secured the outcome with a 1-2-3 top of the seventh inning.
 
After consecutive walks to junior center fielder Sydney Hayes (Douglassville, Pa.) and sophomore left fielder Dani Dabroski (Cedar Grove, N.J.) opened the bottom of the fifth inning, Rauch beat out an infield single on a roller back to the mound and Giampolo walked on four pitches to force in Hayes with another Wildcats run.
 
The rally was complete when Villanova sent eight batters to the plate and scored three times in the bottom of the fifth inning. Kern led off with a double to left, freshman right fielder Tess Cites (Horseheads, N.Y.) followed with a walk and Dabroski drilled a hard single back up the middle with one out to load the bases. Rauch swung at the first pitch she saw and everyone was safe on her fielder's choice grounder to short when an attempt for a force play at second base was too late to get Dabroski advancing on the play. It was an RBI for Rauch with Kern scoring to narrow the deficit to 7-6. Then came Giampolo, who drove in Cites and Dabroski with a two-run single up the middle to give the Wildcats the lead. An RBI single by Dabroski in the bottom of the sixth inning added an insurance run to close the scoring.
 
After drawing nine walks in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, Villanova was issued 10 free passes by Huskies pitching in Sunday's contest. It was the first time since 1992 and only the sixth time in 45 seasons of varsity softball that the Wildcats drew 10 or more walks in a game. Rauch, Giampolo and Cites each walked twice as Villanova inched closer to the team single-season record for walks. The team mark is 169 walks during the 2017 season, with the Wildcats currently at 160 free passes this year.
 
Connecticut catcher Devon Casazza hit a three-run home run during the Huskies five-run third inning and third baseman Emily Piergustavo went 3-for-4. Starting pitcher Payton Kinney pitched the first three innings and gave up four earned runs on two hits and four walks while striking out seven. Meghan O'Neil (10-6, 3.32 ERA) worked the final three innings and gave up four runs on six hits while walking four and striking out four. Villanova drew 24 walks, had a .455 on-base percentage and saw 427 pitches while sending exactly 100 batters to the plate in the three-game series sweep.
 
Back in the BIG EAST after a seven-year absence, Connecticut is hosting the four-team BIG EAST Championship at Burrill Family Field this coming week. The first day of games is Thursday when #1 seed DePaul takes on #4 seed Butler at 12 p.m., followed by the Wildcats and the Huskies no earlier than 3 p.m.