ROSEMONT, Ill.—Graduate pitcher Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) picked the perfect time for one of her most dominant outings of the year and #3 seed Villanova (30-22) is moving on in the winners' bracket to a semifinal round game in the 2022 BIG EAST Softball Championship Presented by JEEP. Rauch pitched the Wildcats to a 2-0 win over #2 seed Butler (31-16) on Thursday afternoon at Parkway Bank Sports Complex, setting up a Friday morning matchup between Villanova and #4 seed DePaul.
 
The win over the Bulldogs is the fifth straight victory for the Wildcats in the BIG EAST Championship, dating back to last season when Villanova won four straight games to win its first-ever conference title. Thursday's win was only the sixth shutout by the Wildcats in 47 games all-time at the conference tournament, while the outcome also secured the 15^th season of at least 30 wins in school history. Villanova scored single runs in the first and third innings to back up Rauch (15-6, 2.40 ERA) in her fifth shutout of the season and 18^th of her Wildcats career.
 
Rauch was in complete control of the game from the start. The first two Butler batters of the game could only wave and miss at third strikes as the Villanova star set an early tone. She ended the day the same way she began it, fanning the final two batters of the game with swings and misses to finish with 12 strikeouts in all. It is the fourth time this year and the 16^th time in her career that Rauch has reached double figures in strikeouts. She set a Wildcats single-season record with nine shutouts last season and is now just two away from the program's all-time record of 20 shutouts.
 
Senior shortstop Megan Kern (Royersford, Pa.) drove in the game's first run with a one-out RBI single in the first inning and junior third baseman Chloe Smith (Sacramento, Calif.) lined a sacrifice fly to center field in the top of the third. The latter ended a sequence in which graduate second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.) nearly single-handedly manufactured a run for Villanova against Bulldogs pitcher Alyssa Graves (14-4, 1.92 ERA).
 
Giampolo led off the third inning and skied a short fly ball into shallow right-center field. It fell in between three Butler players and Giampolo alertly hustled into second base where she just beat the throw coming in from the outfield. Rauch was up next and flied out to center field; Giampolo tagged up and advanced to third with one away. That brought Smith to the plate in an RBI spot and she drilled a 2-1 pitch into center field where it was caught on a line by Bulldogs center fielder Monique Hoosen. Once again Giampolo tagged up and this time she easily scurried home for a 2-0 lead.
 
In the top of the first inning it was – who else – Rauch who got the Wildcats started when she hit a 1-2 pitch just inside the right field line and into the corner for her seventh double of the season. Smith and Kern were up next and had pinpoint positioning for base hits of their own. Smith lined a ball over the head of leaping second baseman Lauren Fey and Kern drove a ball just over the top of shortstop Maddie Moore for an RBI single and the first run of the game.
 
Kern has reached base safely in a career-high 16 straight games, and what better way for Villanova to start its run in the BIG EAST Championship than with three straight hits from the three players who were named BIG EAST All-Conference selections when the league's annual postseason awards were revealed on Wednesday afternoon. The Wildcats finished the day with seven hits from seven different players in a balanced effort throughout the lineup.
 
The biggest spot of the game may very well have been in the bottom of the fifth inning when Butler got the potential tying runs aboard with one out and the top of the lineup coming up. Fey is the Bulldogs leadoff hitter and she fouled off four consecutive pitches from Rauch with Bri Avery at first and pinch runner Emily Perrelle at second. Fey has struck out just eight times all season – one of those strikeouts was leading off in the bottom of the first inning – and she eventually flied out to center for the second out of the inning. Perrelle moved up to third on the fly out and Avery took second on the throw, putting runners at second and third with two away and Ellie Boyer coming up.
 
Boyer lifted a 1-2 pitch in foul territory down the right field line which junior first baseman Victoria Sebastian (Ridgewood, N.J.) had a beat on and made an outstretched sliding catch to end the Bulldogs scoring threat. Perrelle wound up being the only runner who reached as far as third base all day against Rauch, who wound up retiring the final eight batters of the game with four strikeouts in that stretch. A leadoff walk to Teagan O'Reilly and a one-out bunt single by Avery in the key fifth inning were the final two base runners of the game against her.
 
Villanova has won 20 of its last 25 games to date and improved to 18-29 all-time in the BIG EAST Championship. Friday's game against DePaul is at 12 p.m. Eastern time (11 a.m. Central) and can be seen live on FS2 with John Fanta, Tracy Warren and Kacy Standohar providing the coverage. The winner of that game advances to the championship game on Saturday, while the loser will play an elimination contest against the winner of a Thursday night elimination game between Butler and #1 seed Connecticut.