ROSEMONT, Ill.—The tension mounted with each inning upon scoreless inning but there was nothing – not nerves, nor fatigue or hardly even an opposing bat – that could touch the aura surrounding graduate pitcher Paige Rauch (Windsor, N.Y.) in the semifinal round of the 2022 BIG EAST Softball Championship Presented by JEEP on Friday morning. Rauch (16-6, 2.26 ERA) pitched a one-hitter for her second straight shutout in the conference tournament and Villanova (31-22) advanced to Saturday's championship game with a 1-0 victory in eight innings over DePaul (29-23) at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex.
 
Saturday's championship game will either be a rematch between the Wildcats and the Blue Demons or a meeting between Villanova and tournament top seed Connecticut. Either opponent would have to defeat the Wildcats twice while Villanova could win its second straight BIG EAST title with just one win tomorrow. This is the easier path to the final than the Wildcats took last year when they lost their opening game in the conference tournament before winning four consecutive games to capture the BIG EAST trophy. DePaul and the Huskies were playing an elimination game later on Friday afternoon.
 
Junior pinch runner Dani Dabroski (Cedar Grove, N.J.) sprinted home to score the game-winning run with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning to end a masterful pitchers' duel between Rauch and Blue Demons pitcher Sarah Lehman (15-6, 2.83 ERA). Both pitchers allowed just one hit through the first seven innings but sophomore left fielder Tess Cites (Horseheads, N.Y.) ripped a single straight back up the middle to open the bottom of the eighth inning and the Wildcats eventually loaded the bases with one out to set up Villanova's second walk-off win of the season.
 
Cites came up with the kind of plays that win championships in both the top and bottom of the decisive final inning. She handled three chances in left field in the game, none bigger than the diving catch she made of a sinking line drive that was tailing away from her for the first out in the top of the eighth inning. Cites led off in the bottom of the inning and smoked a 1-0 offering from Lehman just over the pitcher's head and on a line into center field for her second hit of the tournament. Cites is batting .500 (8-for-16) over her last nine games and has reached base safely in six of her last nine plate appearances.
 
After the leadoff single in the eighth inning, Dabroski ran for Cites and was at first base with one out when graduate second baseman Angela Giampolo (East Windsor, N.J.) reached on a dropped popup to third base. Dabroski had to hold near first base to see if the ball was going to be caught, but when it dropped she scampered into second base to start building momentum for the Wildcats game-winning rally. Rauch was up next and got behind Lehman 1-2 before working the count full, fouling off a 3-2 pitch and then taking ball four for her 27^th walk of the season.
 
That brought up Smith with the bases loaded and she tapped an 0-1 pitch down to third base. The ball wasn't fielded cleanly by the Blue Demons but it may not have mattered if it had been. Dabroski was off and running, with only her footspeed being quicker than her reflexes to spring into action when Smith swung and made contact. She dove headfirst into home and then the Villanova dugout streaked onto the field in celebration between the plate and the pitchers' circle.
 
It had been 29 years since the Wildcats pitched consecutive shutouts in the BIG EAST Championship, and Villanova had not won a 1-0 game in extra innings since a 10-inning victory over Boston College on April 17, 2004. None of that mattered to Rauch, who hit a batter in the second inning and gave up a one-out double in the fourth but was otherwise untouchable. She retired 14 of the final 15 batters of the game, with the one base runner against her over the final 4 2/3 innings coming with two outs in the top of the seventh when Kate Polucha reached on a dropped fly ball in right field. The next batter up was Tori Meyer and she hit a ball into the high sky in center field that senior center fielder Sydney Hayes (Douglassville, Pa.) calmly tracked and caught to end the threat.
 
Rauch is the only member of the Villanova pitching staff who has been needed through the first two games of this week's championship. She has logged 15 scoreless innings in back-to-back shutouts, striking out 21 of the 53 batters she has faced while giving up just five hits and a walk. She has thrown 151 of 191 pitches for strikes in the past two days while throwing the 18^th and 19^th shutouts of her Wildcats career. The program's all-time shutout record is 20, held by Theresa Hornick (2000-03). Rauch is the single-season record holder with nine last year and has added six more shutouts this season.
 
Junior catcher Ally Jones (Brielle, N.J.) had the only Villanova hit against Lehman through the first seven innings. She lined a double up the gap and all the way to the wall in right-center field with one out in the bottom of the second. Jones nearly had a second hit in the bottom of the fourth inning, but her liner through the right side was snared on a lunging catch by DePaul second baseman Skylor Hilger for the final out of the inning.
 
Saturday's championship game is scheduled for 11 a.m. Central time (12 p.m. Eastern) and can be seen live on FS2. If a second game is necessary it would be played immediately after but would not begin before 1:30 p.m. Central time.