At The Ballpark
Burke Granger – May 9, 2024

LEXINGTON, Ky. – I found myself on the same path as numerous crosscheckers and scouting directors last weekend, traversing the Mason-Dixon Line to see a pair of potential top-10 selections in next month’s draft.

Arkansas lefthander Hagen Smith dominated a good Kentucky lineup on Friday, punching out 14 hitters en route to series opening victory. The Wildcats, however, got the last laugh by taking the final two games of the series to retain their one game lead over Tennessee in the SEC East.

Next, I migrated North along I-75 into the Queen City to get an updated look at West Virginia[…]

MANASSAS, Va. — President Joe Biden on Tuesday condemned abortion bans that have increasingly endangered the health of pregnant women, forcing them to grow sicker before they can receive medical care, and he laid the blame on Donald Trump, his likely Republican challenger in this year’s election.

“He’s betting we won’t hold him responsible,” Biden said to a crowd of hundreds of cheering supporters. “He’s betting you’re going to stop caring.”

“But guess what?” he added. “I’m betting he’s wrong. I’m betting you won’t forget.”

The rally with Vice President Kamala Harris came on the same day as the Republican primary in New Hampshire, where Trump tightened his grip on his party’s presidential nomination. Biden won the largely symbolic Democratic primary via a write-in campaign after he refused to appear on the ballot.

The Virginia rally demonstrated how Democrats hope to harness enduring anger over abortion restrictions to blunt his comeback bid.

Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court less than two years ago in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a decision enabled by three conservative justices appointed by Trump.

“The person most responsible for taking away this freedom in America is Donald Trump,” Biden said.

The speech was Biden’s bluntest yet on abortion and the status of reproductive health, but it was disrupted several times by protests over Israel’s war in Gaza. One person shouted “shame on you!”

“This is going to go on for a while; they got this planned,” the Democratic president said as the protestors were escorted out one by one.

Biden and Harris were joined by their spouses, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, at Tuesday’s rally. It’s the first time the four of them have appeared together since the campaign began, a reflection of the importance that Democrats are putting on abortion this year.

Jill Biden told a story about a friend who became pregnant in high school, years before Roe v. Wade. The friend, she said, needed to get a psychiatric evaluation to be declared mentally unfit before she could get the abortion.

“Secrecy, shame, silence, danger, even death. That’s what defined that time for so many women,” she said. “And because of Dobbs that’s where we’re finding ourselves back again, refighting the battles we had fought.”

Emhoff told the crowd that the fight for abortion rights needed men as well.

“Reproductive freedom is not a woman’s issue,” Emhoff said. “It’s an everyone’s issue.”

The four of them spoke in front of a blue banner that spanned the width of the stage and said “Restore Roe” in bold letters. The crowd hummed with energy, chanting “four more years” and booing Trump’s name, a glimpse of the enthusiasm that has been largely missing from Biden’s low-key events since announcing his reelection campaign last April.

Biden was introduced by Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman whose water broke only halfway through her pregnancy. Because Roe v. Wade had just been overturned, she was unable to get an abortion until she went into septic shock.

“What I went through was nothing short of barbaric. And it didn’t need to happen,” said Zurawski, who has also testified before Congress and sued Texas along with several other women. “But it did, because of Donald Trump.”

Democrats view Virginia as a success story in their fight for abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. In last year’s legislative elections, the party maintained control of the Senate and won a majority in the House. It was a defeat for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who had proposed new limits on abortion and had been considered a potential presidential candidate.

“The voice of the people has been heard and it will be heard,” said Harris, the first woman to serve as vice president.

She also targeted Trump in her speech, describing him as “the architect of this health care crisis” caused by abortion restrictions around the country.

Harris was in Wisconsin on Monday to mark the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the first stop in a nationwide series of events focused on abortion.

“In America, freedom is not to be given. It is not to be bestowed. It is ours by right,” she said. “And that includes the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body — not the government telling you what to do.”

While Harris and Democrats have embraced abortion as a campaign issue, many Republicans are shying away or calling for a truce, fearful of sparking more backlash from voters.

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, recently made a plea to “find consensus” on the divisive issue.

“As much as I’m pro-life, I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice, and I don’t want them to judge me for being pro-life,” she said during a primary debate in November.

Trump has taken credit for helping to overturn Roe v. Wade, but he has balked at laws like Florida’s ban on abortions after six weeks, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the Republican nomination race over the weekend.

“You have to win elections,” Trump said during a recent Fox News town hall.

Abortion is also the focus of Biden’s new television advertisement featuring Dr. Austin Dennard, an OB-GYN in Texas who had to leave her state to get an abortion when she learned that her baby had a fatal condition called anencephaly.

“In Texas, you are forced to carry that pregnancy, and that is because of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade,” Dennard said.

Although Democrats want to restore the federal rights that were established in Roe v. Wade, there’s no chance of that with the current makeup of the Supreme Court and Republican control of the House. The White House is pushing against the limits of its ability to ensure access to abortion.

On Monday, it announced the creation of a team dedicated to helping hospitals comply with the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires hospitals receiving federal money to provide life-saving treatment when a patient is at risk of dying.

The Department of Health and Human Services said it would improve training at hospitals concerning the law and publish new information on how to lodge a complaint against a hospital.

Some advocacy groups have said complaints should be enforced more aggressively. Last week, The Associated Press reported that federal officials did not find any violation of the law when an Oklahoma hospital instructed a 26-year-old woman to wait in a parking lot until her condition worsened to qualify for an abortion of her nonviable pregnancy.

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Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.

The 2023-2024 regular season campaign for the Virginia Cavaliers softball team wound up being far more impressive than outsiders initially predicted. The Hoos were slated to finish ninth out of 13 ACC teams, but instead finished fourth with a 32-17 record and a 15-9 record in the ACC, good for the team’s highest finish since 2010.

While the conference and non-conference schedules still had some blips, the Hoos won seven out of eight ACC series, including huge victories against Clemson and Duke, who were ranked eleventh and third at the time.

Clemson will get a rematch with Virginia on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the 2024 ACC Softball Tournament in Durham after the Cavaliers beat the Tigers twice in Charlottesville. In the March series that really ignited a run in the ACC, a bases loaded double from Bella Cabral helped Virginia storm back from a 4-0 deficit to take a 6-4 lead, and the Cavalier pitching staff did the rest. The defense was also impressive in a game three shutout, and Jade Hylton hit a late game home run to secure the 3-0 victory.

Madi Harris had a breakout series in the circle against Clemson, pitching 9.1 innings, earning two wins, and not giving up a single run. With that kind of performance, it’s possible that Virginia opts to give Harris the ball in the ACC quarterfinals, and we can see if she can once again stymie the Clemson offense.

In addition to Madi Harris in the circle, we will likely see UVA’s ace, Eden Bigham, who was honored as ACC pitcher of the week three times this season and she has pitched double the number of innings as the next pitcher (129.1 to 65.2 from Madi Harris). On Wednesday, Hylton was named to the All-ACC First Team.

Virginia’s offense struggled to produce runs early in the season, but it has improved significantly since then. Jade Hylton leads the way for Virginia in nearly every offensive category, including average (.342), runs (33), hits (53), doubles (12), home runs (12), on base percentage (.428), slugging percentage (.677), OPS (1.105), RBI (37), walks (24), and stolen bases (14). Hylton joined Bigham as Virginia’s two All-ACC First-Team selections.

Shelby Barbee has a hot bat after earning Co-ACC Player of the Week Honors for her Georgia Tech series where she went 6 for 9 with 7 RBI and three home runs. UVA is hoping that the week off between games doesn’t disrupt her streak. Another player to watch is freshman Bella Cabral, who has made clutch plays both on offense and at second base throughout the season. Cabral was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team, while Barbee was an All-ACC Third-Team selection.

On Clemson’s side, reigning National Player of the Year Valerie Cagle is always a threat in the circle and at the plate. She is hitting .364 with an OPS of 1.057. Teammates McKenzie Clark and Maddie Moore also have OPS metrics of above 1.000, which is an impressive threshold to cross. 

Regan Spencer has pitched the most for Clemson this season and boasts a 2.00 ERA. While Spencer often relies on her defense to get outs behind her, Cagle and Millie Thompson are two pitchers who rely more on strikeouts. They have ERAs of 2.50 and 1.77, respectively. 

Virginia is entering postseason play with back-to-back 30 win seasons. While Joanna Hardin has steadily improved her team in eight seasons at Virginia, that has yet to translate to postseason play. The Hoos have lost in the ACC quarterfinals each of the last two years, to No. 3 Florida State in 2022 and Syracuse in 2023. The Cavaliers qualified for the National Invitational Softball Championship in 2022 and managed one win, but the UVA softball postseason history is limited.

In fact, the only time UVA has made the NCAA tournament was in 2010. After receiving one vote in the top 25 poll this week, there is a good chance Virginia will hear its name called in the 64 team field on Selection Sunday to break the 14-year drought. However, there is work to be done before that point, and having a chance to win a conference championship is a significant opportunity to seize. 

The Cavaliers will face the Clemson Tigers on Thursday at 1:30 pm (ACCN) in the ACC quarterfinals in Durham for a chance to advance to the ACC semifinals (Friday at 1pm) against the winner of Duke and Boston College/Syracuse.