VILLANOVA, Pa. – Villanova softball's 2024 regular season came to an end on Saturday afternoon, falling 2-1 to the Butler Bulldogs in the series finale.

The Wildcats honored their five-person senior class with a pre-game ceremony: Tess Cites, Emily Orr, Brooklyn Ostrowski, Caroline Pellicano and Alyssa Seidler.

Ava Franz reached all three times for Villanova (28-22, 19-5 BIG EAST), scoring the lone run with a seventh-inning solo shot while adding a double and a four-pitch walk. Elaina Wagner added a hit and a base on balls as Kelsey White contributed the lone other base knock with a pinch-hit single.

Seidler received the loss after allowing two runs in her four-inning start before Pellicano threw three frames of four-strikeout, scoreless ball.

For the second time in as many days, the Bulldogs struck in the opening inning as a leadoff single, walk, sacrifice bunt and a double plated one before Seidler stranded the bags loaded with a swinging K.

Butler sent a solo homer out of the yard in the third to make it a 2-0 ballgame, and that's where the scoreboard stood until the bottom of the seventh.

Wagner roped a leadoff single into center to start the fourth then moved up just 60 feet away on a wild pitch and groundout but couldn't come around to score. White singled up the middle in a fifth-frame appearance, but the 'Cats were still blanked.

Pellicano stranded the bases loaded in the sixth then left two aboard in the seventh with her third and fourth strikeouts of the day, giving the lineup one more shot. 

After Butler pitched around her in the fourth, Franz made them pay for throwing a strike as the junior crushed one out of the deepest part of the yard for VU's first run. Despite a couple of ropes from the ensuing Villanova hitters, Bulldogs made the plays and took the series with a 2-1 victory.

UP NEXT: The Wildcats will head up to Providence, Rhode Island, for the BIG EAST Tournament as the conference's number one seed for the first time in program history.