Virginia Softball Picks Up 3-0 Win at Sam Houston

Two wins, two sweeps for the Virginia softball team.

The Cavaliers scored runs in the first, second, and seventh innings, which was more than enough run support for the combined efforts of Molly Grube, Savanah Henley, and Eden Bigham, who pitched a combined shutout to lead Virginia to a 3-0 win at Sam Houston on Friday afternoon in Huntsville, Texas.

On Thursday, Virginia hit a total of five home runs as the Cavaliers hit two homers in their win over Lamar and then hit three more as they jumped out to an 8-1 lead over Houston before the game was suspended due to a lighting malfunction at the stadium. On Friday, the Hoos picked up right where they left off, as Sarah Coon delivered a two-out solo home run to left field to get Virginia on the board in the top of the first inning.

Molly Grube walked the first batter she faced in the bottom of the first inning, but then proceeded to retire the next eight batters in a row. Virginia added another run in the top of the second as Kelly Ayer hit a leadoff single and advanced to second on a groundout from Kailyn Jones, before coming around to score on a single from Leah Boggs.

After pitching four scoreless innings with virtually no problems, Grube ran into some trouble in the bottom of the fifth as Sam Houston put two runners on base on fielding errors. Savanah Henley came into the ball game and retired the first and only batter she faced with a ground out to preserve UVA's 2-0 lead.

The Cavaliers had runners in scoring position in the third, fifth, and sixth innings, including a bases loaded opportunity in the sixth, but they were unable to convert in those situations and led by just two runs entering the final frame.

Finally, in the top of the seventh, the Hoos added another insurance run as Jade Hylton drew a leadoff walk and Katie Goldberg doubled to right center to bring in Hylton to make it 3-0.

Virginia brought in freshman Eden Bigham, who on Thursday became the first UVA pitcher to throw a no-hitter since 2019, to handle the sixth and seventh innings. Bigham wasn't as sharp as she was on Thursday, giving up back-to-back singles to start the sixth inning, but she used a pair of strikeouts to get out of the inning and worked through the bottom of the seventh inning with relative ease to secure the first save of her career.

Grube got the win, pitching 4.2 scoreless innings and giving up just one hit in the process.

Now 2-0 on the season, Virginia returns to the Houston Invitational on Saturday, playing Lamar at 11am ET before resuming the game against Houston at 6:30pm, with Virginia leading 8-1 in the third inning.

To stay up to date on all Virginia Cavaliers sports news, follow CavaliersNow on social media:

Facebook: @CavaliersNow
Twitter: @CavaliersNowFN

Add us as a preferred source on Google