TAMPA, Fla. – Villanova softball stayed hot during their trip to the Sunshine State, securing a fourth win in a row with a 4-1 victory over Florida Gulf Coast at USF Softball Stadium on Saturday night.
Tess Cites reached base four times and scored a run for Villanova (8-9), while Brooklyn Ostrowski blasted a third-inning homer to drive in a game-best two runs. Ally Jones and Grace Reed registered the other base knocks in the game for the Wildcats as Elaina Wagner drew two walks in the ballgame and Elizabeth Gray scored her first collegiate run.
Alyssa Seidler earned her third win of the year with four strikeouts and just one unearned run in the start. Caroline Pellicano picked up the save after coming on in the fifth and surrendering only one hit while striking out three.
Florida Gulf Coast put their first two batters on the basepaths by working a pair of leadoff walks, but Seidler answered with back-to-back strikeouts and a two-out flyout to keep the scoreboard blank.
The Wildcats replicated that initial success with two straight five-pitch bases on balls for Cites and Ava Franz. Jones continued her hot weekend with a single back through the middle, scoring Cites with the game's first base hit to get the 'Cats up 1-0.
The Eagles recorded their first hit with a single to kick off the second before a one-out walk put two on the bags. Seidler again worked out of it, inducing a strikeout and groundout to preserve her squad's edge.
Gray was the recipient of a five-pitch walk with one down in the second before Cites roped the first strike of her at bat over an infielder's head for a single to put runners on the corners. Franz chopped one back up the middle that was gloved and thrown to the dish quickly, but Gray was too fast and beat the tag to grant her side a 2-0 edge.
Seidler couldn't get herself out of the third unscathed as the first batter reached on a throwing error, moved up to third on a sacrifice fly and scored on a single into left for a 2-1 ballgame.
Ostrowski made the Eagles pay for a four-pitch leadoff walk of Chloe Smith in the third as the redshirt junior crushed one out of the yard over the tallest part of the wall to tie her for the team lead in homers this year (four) and get the 'Cats ahead 4-1.
The fourth and fifth innings brought scoreless stanzas for both sides with just one hit and an error by each team resulting in the lone baserunners for either squad.
The sixth appeared to be a sticky situation for the 'Cats, but Pellicano worked through a one-out walk as a runner was ruled out of the basepath to keep her team's advantage at three.
Reed ripped a leadoff single through the right side and moved up to second on the right fielder's bobble, then Cites earned Villanova's first intentional walk in two years but the 'Cats couldn't put anyone across the dish in their final hacks.
Pellicano went back out to the circle and got a trio of batted-ball outs in short order, delivering a Wildcat victory with the senior's second save of 2024.
The win over the Eagles marks Villanova's fifth in the all-time series, moving the Wildcats to 5-3 all-time against FGCU.
UP NEXT: The 'Cats round out their trip to the Sunshine State with a Monday doubleheader, matching up with the South Florida Bulls at both 3 and 5:30 p.m. from the USF Softball Stadium.
