UVA Softball: ‘Hoos walk off Indiana, set to face #7 Tennessee on Saturday

Indiana would strike, Virginia would strike back. Rinse, repeat. A classic opening NCAA Tournament regional game was almost a walkoff in the bottom of the seventh, before the Hoosiers got an out at the plate.

Reagan Hickey ended it an inning later, driving a 3-2 fastball to the fence in right-center to score Jade Hylton from second, giving the ‘Hoos an 8-7 win on Friday night.

“I’m grateful that we kept fighting and battling. That’s the team we know we are,” UVA coach Joanna Hardin said after the win.

“We’ve been punched in the face a lot this year, and it’s been about resilience and recovery. I’m proud of this team and how they kept fighting. They kept knocking, and a door finally opened,” Hardin said.

The win gets Virginia into a winner’s bracket game with #7 national seed Tennessee, a 3-1 winner over Northern Kentucky earlier in the day on Friday.

The UVA-UT game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. ET first pitch.

It took a lot of work for Virginia to get there.

Indiana struck first, scoring three in the top of the first, highlighted by a two-run homer from Avery Parker.

Hylton answered in the second, with a three-run bomb, the first of her two homers on the night.

It would be back-and-forth all night.

Ellie Goins put IU back on top in the third with a two-run homer; Virginia got those back with solo shots from Madison Greene and Hylton in the fourth.

Goins went deep with another two-run shot in the fifth; Virginia scratched two runs across in the sixth on a bases-loaded walk to Hylton and an RBI groundout from Macee Eaton.

Taylor Smith worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the seventh, setting the stage for the offense.

With runners on first and second and two down, Jaiden Griffith lined a single to center, and pinch-runner Kamyria Woody-Gigge got the wave around to try to score, but she was thrown out at the plate by a clutch throw from Goins, and a split-second tag by Parker at the dish, sending the game to extras.

Smith worked a 1-2-3 top of the eighth, getting the top of the UVA order to the plate with the chance to walk it off.

Hylton, the leadoff hitter, worked a walk. Eaton lined out to center, and Bella Cabral grounded out to first, but Hylton was able to advance to second on that play.

That brought up Hickey, who worked the count, then hit a towering drive to the fence on the 3-2 pitch, easily scoring Hylton from second with the winning run.