PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania softball team made its first road trip of the shortened 2021 season on Wednesday, traveling to the Main Line to face a red-hot Villanova squad that entered the day having won 13 of its last 14 games. The Quakers dropped Game 1, 6-2, but recovered to win the second game, 4-2.
 
Penn is now 3-3 on the young season, while the Wildcats are 17-9 overall.
 
Game 1 – Villanova 6, Penn 2
The Wildcats scored all of their runs in the first two innings to take control of the game early, and despite a number of opportunities Penn could not make up the deficit.
 
Nova needed just two batters to go ahead in the bottom of the first inning. After Angela Giampolo led off with a double for the hosts, pitcher Paige Rauch took Penn starter Bella Fiorentino deep to center for a two-run homer and a 2-0 lead.
 
The Quakers got one of those runs back in the top of the second when freshman Julia Mortimer led off with her first collegiate home run to center, but Villanova scored four more runs in the second to break the game open. Fiorentino walked the first two batters she faced in the inning, and then a one-out single scored a run and knocked her out of the game. Olivia Szewczyk came into the circle for Penn but was touched up for three more runs including one on a steal of home.
 
Sarah Schneider provided some power from the bottom of the order when she hit a home run to left field in the third to make it a 6-2 game. At that point it looked like Game 1 would be a high-scoring affair, but as it turned out that was the final run in the game.
 
Penn kept creating chances offensively but left two runners on in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Overall, the Quakers stranded eight runners in the contest.
 
After getting touched up when she came on in the second, Szewczyk had a solid showing in the circle as she was credited with just one earned run across 4.2 innings in relief.

Game 2 – Penn 4, Villanova 2
Penn got the scoring going right away with a two-out rally in the first against Wildcats starter Anissa Amarillas. Julia Schneider and Julia Mortimer both walked with two down, and then Sammy Fenton brought both of them home with a double to left-center. Sarah Schneider looked like she might do further damage with another long fly ball to the same spot, but Dani Dabroski was able to get over and make the catch.
 
Schneider and Mortimer set the table for Fenton again in the third, Schneider singling and Mortimer doubling with one out. Fenton grounded out this time, but Schneider scored on the play to make it 3-0. In the bottom half Villanova got runners on second and third with just one out and the meat of the order coming up, but pitcher Julia Longo got out of the jam by striking out Tess Cites and then inducing cleanup hitter Chloe Smith to ground out right back to her.
 
In the fifth, Villanova used a pair of singles to get base runners with just one out, but Cites lined a ball that Fenton knocked down at shortstop and turned into a fielder's choice at third base, and then Smith bounced a ball right to third baseman Laurel McKelvey and she stepped on the bag to end the threat.
 
Julia DaCosta brought the Villanova dugout to life when she led off the bottom of the sixth with a home run to dead center, and then with two outs Sydney Hayes walked which brought Dani Dabroski to the plate as the tying run. Dabroski doubled to left center, scoring Hayes easily, but then Longo got leadoff hitter Angela Giampolo to hit a check-swing grounder to second and the Quakers still held a lead as the game went to the seventh.
 
Penn used some great at-bats to score a massive insurance run in the top of the seventh. With one out, Mortimer blasted a single on an 0-2 count and then advanced all the way to third when the ball got by the right fielder. Fenton struck out after fouling off five two-strike pitches, and Sarah Schneider fouled off three straight pitches before poking a single through the right side of the infield to score Mortimer.
 
Longo got into more trouble in the bottom of the seventh, but she ended the game with a heads-up play. With runners on first and second and one out, Villanova's DaCosta popped a ball up between Longo and McKelvey. Longo dropped it, but quickly picked it up on the bounce and threw to third base for a force out. Then the ball was relayed to second for another force, and that ended the contest.
 
Penn is back in action next Wednesday, hosting Saint Joseph's in a doubleheader that is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.