By Amanda Guerriero

The Hofstra softball team is on track to sit atop the Colonial Athletic Association for the fifth straight year. The Pride is currently 29-13 overall with a conference record of 11-3. The team is now in first place in the CAA, but a few teams are nipping at the Pride’s heels.

Both Georgia State University and University of North Carolina Wilmington are in the running for the conference title, and Delaware cannot be counted out either, as the Blue Hens are only a few games behind.

The Pride only has two more conference series’ left in the regular season. This weekend Hofstra will take on Drexel University at home for a three-game series. Drexel is seventh out of eight teams in the CAA and should not prove to be too tough of a series for the strong-armed Pride. The Pride has been nearly flawless at home this season with a 12-1 record, which does not work in Drexel’s favor either.

“I feel that having nine of our last 12 games at home gives us a lot of confidence,” Pride freshman pitcher Kayleigh Lotti said. “This is a critical time in the season and this all affects who hosts the CAA’s, and to have our field for that would be a huge advantage.”

The Pride plays its last conference at Delaware the weekend after the Drexel series. This three-game series may be crucial in shaping the top four teams in the standings heading into the conference tournament (the team that finishes first earns the right to host the tournament at its home stadium on campus). Delaware is by no means out of the running to win the conference and it may come down to this series to determine who will win. Even if the Blue Hens do not have a chance at winning the conference by that time, upsetting the Pride two out of the three games may allow another team such as the Panthers or Seahawks to scoot into first over Hofstra.

“I feel that we always need things to work on, but we also are all playing our best and working hard to finish the season with another CAA championship,” Lotti said. “We are getting better and better as games go by and we are learning new things every day that we need to improve on.”

Along with these two three-game series, the Pride still has six non-conference games left on the schedule. Nine of the remaining 12 games are at home for the Pride, which should certainly work in the team’s favor.