PHILADELPHIA— The University of Pennsylvania softball team battled through eight innings of play to earn their first tie of the year against Villanova earlier this evening, the final score 12-12. With the result, Penn moves to 2-23-1 on the year.

Final: Penn 12, Villanova 12 (after 8 innings)
The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead, capitalizing on mistakes by the Quakers to put themselves up 4-0 by the end of the first. The Quakers fought right back in the second, executing a small-ball attack to put a run on the board. The Wildcats resumed their small-ball approach in their half of the second, tacking on two more.

In the third, Dani Freer knocked in two runs with a triple up the right field line. Abbie Stellrecht then laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to score Freer for run number four. The Quakers then went back to work in the top of the fifth, loading the bases for catcher Alexis Youngren. The freshman sent a moonshot over the fence in left-center field, recording a grand slam for her first career home run to give the Red and Blue an 8-6 lead. Penn kept working, getting two on base for freshman Gigi Ganje, who notched her first RBI of the day with a single to score Madison Bauerle. At the end of the fifth, Penn led Villanova, 9-7.

Penn's bats stayed hot going into the sixth, Megan Huang hitting a stand-up triple down the right field line to tack on two more runs for the Quakers. Bauerle followed with a sacrifice fly in center field to score Huang with ease for the twelfth run.

The Wildcats took the dish in the bottom of the seventh, clawing back from a 12-7 deficit to score five runs and force extra innings. Freshman Ainsley Pemberton was brought in to stop the bleeding, forcing a fly ball from White. Ganje caught the ball, throwing the ball on a rope to Youngren behind the plate to end the inning and maintain the tie. The two teams remained deadlocked at 12 after eight innings, but the game was called due to darkness. The final score of the game was 12-12, earning a tie for both teams.

Up Next
The Quakers return home to Penn Park this weekend for their series against Harvard. They open the series with game one on Saturday, April 5 at 10 a.m. followed by a doubleheader on Sunday, April 6 at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

For the latest on Penn Softball, follow @Penn_Softball on X and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.

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