WASHINGTON – The Georgetown University softball team will welcome the Villanova Wildcats to Nats Youth Academy on Thursday, April 18 and Friday, April 19 for a three-game BIG EAST series. The squads will play a doubleheader on Thursday set for 1 p.m. and a single game on Friday at noon. Live stats for all three games will be available at GUHoyas.com.
The Hoyas (11-28, 4-6 BIG EAST) are coming off of a series sweep at Butler after going 2-0 against the Bulldogs. Georgetown defeated BU 6-5 in game one and then defeated the Bulldogs 3-1 in game two. Sunday's game was canceled due to inclement weather. Freshman
Cassie Henning (Atlanta, Ga. / Wesleyan) led the Blue & Gray with a pair of hits in Saturday's doubleheader, including a three-run double to put GU ahead of Butler in the top of the sixth inning to seal the victory in game one. Henning also pitched all seven innings in game two, the first complete game of her collegiate career, and allowed just one run off of three off of five hits.
For the season, junior
Noelle Holiday (Bear, Del. / Red Lion Christian Academy) leads the squad batting .344 with team highs of nine doubles, seven homers, 29 RBIs and a .667 slugging percentage. Sophomore
Savannah Jones (San Rafael, Calif. / Terra Linda) ranks second with a .308 batting average, 33 hits, eight doubles, three triples, a home run and 13 RBIs. Freshman
Mae Forshey (Phoenix, Ariz. / Arcadia) has a team-best 36 hits, as well as eight doubles and 19 RBIs on the year.
The Wildcats are 20-19 on the season and 4-5 in the BIG EAST. They are coming off of a 2-1 series loss to Creighton, defeating the Bluejays 6-0 in the first game over the weekend. Villanova scored all six runs within the first three innings of the shutout with Paige Rauch leading the squad. Rauch recorded her ninth win in the circle with eight strikeouts and hit a home run in the first inning, tying her for all-time single season home run record with 11. She leads the Wildcats batting .391 to go with 45 hits, six doubles, three triples, 11 homers, 31 RBIs and a .783 slugging percentage. In the circle, Rauch holds a 2.70 earned run average and has recorded 101 strikeouts in 114.0 innings pitched.
'Nova is a playing a doubleheader at Towson on Wednesday night prior to visiting the Hoyas on Thursday.
The Blue & Gray is 12-13 in the all-time series against the Wildcats. Last year, VU swept Georgetown 3-0 in the series at Villanova.
Following this week's league matchup, the Hoyas will visit George Mason for a midweek non-conference game on Wednesday, April 24 at 4 p.m. Live stats will be available at GUHoyas.com.
