CHICAGO, Ill.—Despite hitting several fly balls to the deepest parts of the ballpark in the early innings of the game, Villanova (14-18, 3-3 BIG EAST) was held to a lone run on a Ryan Henry (Ramsey, N.J.) homer in the second inning and the Wildcats fell to DePaul (12-17, 2-5 BIG EAST) by a final score of 9-1 in five innings at Cacciatore Stadium on Friday afternoon. Henry's second home run of the season briefly tied the score at 1-1, but the Blue Demons took a lead they never relinquished in the bottom of the second inning.
 
Villanova hit the ball hard in the opener of a three-game series featuring the top two teams from the 2021 regular season BIG EAST standings. Senior shortstop Megan Kern (Royersford, Pa.) drilled a line drive into left field which was caught on a line for the final out in the first inning. In the top of the second, freshman right fielder Kelsey White (Taunton, Mass.) and junior catcher Ally Jones (Brielle, N.J.) each tested the dimensions of the left field fence with deep fly balls. White's ball was caught in foul territory for an out and Jones was turned aside when her deep fly was tracked down on the warning track.
 
Henry reversed the trend however, when she got a hold of a 2-2 offering from DePaul pitcher Erin Hocker (3-7) and drove the ball far over the fence to knot the score at 1-1. The host Blue Demons had taken an early lead in their first time up on a two-out, run-scoring single by cleanup hitter Kate Polucha. After Henry tied the game with two outs in the top of the second, graduate second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.) reached on an error to extend the inning before Hocker got a strikeout to end the Wildcats threat.
 
Junior third baseman Chloe Smith (Sacramento, Calif.) led off the third inning with another deep Villanova drive – this time to right field – but that also turned into a foul-out in the right field corner. In the top of the fifth inning, freshman pinch hitter Amanda DeSantis (Endwell, N.Y.) and Smith led off with consecutive singles to give the Wildcats some offensive momentum, but a line drive near the middle of the diamond off the bat of graduate Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) was snagged and turned into a double play which helped Hocker escape another potential rally.
 
With the score tied 1-1 in the home half of the second inning, a hit batter and a single to center field by DePaul had runners at first and second with nobody out. Riley Pool lofted a ball into a high sky in center field and the ball was initially misjudged and then dropped as a run scored. That play gave the Blue Demons back the lead and Baylee Cosgrove followed with a three-run home run which stretched the score to 5-1 and changed the momentum in the game. Anna Wohlers later hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning to end the game.
 
Rauch started in the circle and sophomore Caroline Pellicano (Norristown, Pa.) came on to pitch with one out in the bottom of the second. Her best inning of work was the bottom of the fourth in which she worked around a leadoff double to strand the runner at third without a run scoring. Three straight groundouts to Kern at shortstop got Pellicano out of the inning, with Kern making a nice play on the second ball hit to her when she grabbed a hard shot off the bat of Brooke Johnson and looked the runner at third back to the bag before getting the out at first.
 
The second game of the series on Saturday has been moved up to 11 a.m. Central time (12 p.m. Eastern) due to the threat of inclement weather in Chicago later in the afternoon.