A pair of one-out hits in the sixth brought home two North Florida runs, which was enough for the Ospreys to get past #25 Virginia, 2-1, on the opening day of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
The loss sends the ‘Hoos (37-18) into an elimination game on Saturday with Elon.
UVA led 1-0 after a second-inning homer from Sarah Coon, her seventh homer of the season.
Allison Benning (25-5, 1.49 ERA) only gave up one other hit on the day in the complete-game victory.
A Chloe Culp RBI double tied the game with one out in the sixth, and Kirsten Caravaca followed with another RBI double to put North Florida ahead.
Eden Bigham relieved starter Julia Cuozzo (5-2, 2.94 ERA) and got the final out of the sixth, then put up a 1-2-3 seventh to give the bats a chance to tie or win in the bottom of the seventh.
Coon walked to lead off the inning, but Benning was able to pitch around that to close out the game.
“You tip your cap to North Florida. Winning in the postseason comes down to timely hitting. They came through and put that two-spot up in the sixth. They came out ready to go,” Virginia coach Joanna Hardin said. “Julia threw well through the first five innings – she was just phenomenal. We couldn’t really get on time with (Allison) Benning. She was mixing speeds well. It (the loss) just made our job a little bit harder, but we have to go back to work, come out tomorrow ready to compete and fight to win.”
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Chris Graham
