By Tim Robertson
Same Park, New View
Last weekend’s series was a little different for a Delaware assistant coach. Although she played four years worth of games at Hofstra Softball Stadium in college, she never saw the game from the third base dugout.
Former Hofstra pitching star Adrienne Clark made her first trip back to the stadium on Saturday, after graduating in 2005.
“It was weird,” the second-year coach explained. “It’s always fun to come back to where you played and had your experiences.”
Along with the strange field perspective, Clark now found herself coaching against four players she shared a locker room with for two years.
“I’m very close with the juniors and seniors,” she said.
With perhaps a slight scouting advantage, after pitching against them in practice for two years, Clark played down the edge.
“It didn’t make or break anything,” said Clark, who currently is earning her M.B.A. from Delaware.
Clark’s former coach, Bill Edwards, said he is glad she is taking care of her career.
“You’re happy she is doing what she needs to do to pay my Social Security in a couple years,” Edwards joked. “You never want your alums to leave, but it’s pretty neat.”
Oliver, Pride No-Hit LIU
Just as coach Bill Edwards tapped Kayleigh Lotti as his go-to pitcher, his horse to ride for the rest of the season, he gets a no-hit performance from his other starting pitcher, junior Courtney Oliver, against Long Island University, en route to a 4-0 win.
A “minor injury during warm-ups in the middle of the first” prevented Lotti from officially starting the game for the Pride, according to the athletics department’s Web site.
Oliver, who hadn’t pitched in 10 days, didn’t show any rust. She struck out three, and only had to pitch out of a jam once during the game. Only two walks in the first inning kept Oliver from pitching a perfect game.
Offensively for the Pride, senior Ashley Lane severed a scoreless tie in the sixth with her team-leading 33rd RBI. Three wild pitches in the sixth plated two more runs for Hofstra. Second baseman Casey Fee wrapped up the scoring for the Pride in the seventh with an RBI single.