By Tim Robertson
For three softball heroines, it was a weekend full of phenomenal pitching, key hits at key times and a dramatic extra-innings exit.
Hofstra softball jumped on the back of sophomore pitcher Kayleigh Lotti last weekend, as she pitched 20.1 innings in two days, allowing just one run in three games, on the way to a sweep over CAA rival Delaware.
Lotti, who coach Bill Edwards tapped as his pitching horse to carry the Pride into the conference playoffs, turned in three stellar performances.
“She can do that. She is a kind of kid that gets stronger as the day goes on and stays within herself,” Edwards said following Saturday’s doubleheader.
Lotti kept her pitch count down and didn’t seem to lose heat off of her fastball on Saturday. She finished the second game with two strikeouts in the seventh, for a game total of eight. She completed the weekend with two shutouts, two complete games and 28 strikeouts to bring her season total to 206, 71 shy of the school’s 11-year-old single-season record.
With ice wrapped around her arm, shoulder and leg, Lotti said after the game that she felt good and didn’t tire.
“Coach [Edwards] said, ‘we’ll start you, but if I feel you’re getting tired, we’ll take you out.’ And he knows when I’m tired,” Lotti said.
Pitching two gems on Saturday, Lotti campaigned for run support on the bench, players said.
“She saying ‘let’s get some runs here!’ and we said, ‘we’re sorry! We’re trying!’ and [she was getting] strikeout, strikeout,” Hodge joked of the first game, as she imitated and exaggerated the voices.
In that first contest, the Pride struggled to solve Blue Hen starter Carolynn Sloat, who located her pitches well. For five innings, Sloat, 8-10 with a 2.35 ERA entering the series, mystified hitters, allowing just three hits and no runs. Hofstra finally broke through in the sixth, when Hodge, a defensive replacement, ripped a frozen rope over first base for the game-winning RBI.
“Pam [Dreslinski] gave me some hints as to what was going on. I saw the inside pitch and gave it a ride,” Hodge said.
Hodge crossed the plate later in the inning for the Pride’s second and final run after Delaware’s shortstop, Kim Ovittore, misplayed a groundball. The breakthrough relieved Hofstra’s coach.
“I knew we only needed one or two. After we got it, I felt more comfortable,” said Edwards.
The team that couldn’t get good at-bats, as Edwards said, turned on the jets for the second battle against Delaware. The Pride wasted little time, and threatened early. It loaded the bases in the first, knocking out Delaware starter Samantha Shawn, who recorded just one out. Sloat successfully mopped up the inning, as Pride junior Courtney Oliver hit into an inning-ending double play.
After another Pride player reached third in the second to no avail, the Pride struck first the following inning. Pam Dreslinski smacked a two-run home run to left-center field, giving her six homers this season.
Fireworks continued into the fourth, when Hodge led off and knocked her first jack of the season to left.
“With home runs, you have to let the ball come to you,” she said. “I was surprised [to get a good ball to hit], but I was looking for the inside pitch.”
Delaware helped Hofstra in the fifth, as two errors allowed the Pride to plate two of its four runs that inning. The Pride’s speed-oriented, station-to-station softball showed it could score runs in multiple ways.
“We had a lot going,” Edwards said. “We have speed in spots [of the lineup] and power in spots. When you get the speed, you can create things.”
Saturday’s second match serves as an obvious example of the type of game Lotti likes.
“It helps out a lot when they score a lot of runs for me. It’s easier because I have a lot of runs [to work with],” Lotti said.
Hodge and Lotti soon had company as the heroines of the series. Freshman Michele DePasquale picked the most opportune time to launch her first career home run in the bottom of the eighth on Sunday.
DePasquale, who went 3-for-3 on the day and 4-for-5 for the series, drilled a one ball, one strike pitch from Sloat just inside the right field foul pole. The walk-off shot earned the Pride the series sweep and its 11th CAA victory. James Madison shares the conference lead with the Pride after a sweep of Drexel.
The game started similar to Saturday’s first game, scoreless. In the bottom of the fifth, Pride catcher Carolann Lubach knocked in the first run of the game after an unusual sequence of events. Sophomore Casey Fee started the inning by reaching first on a Delaware error, stole second, then went to third when the Blue Hens catcher threw the ball into center field trying to catch Fee stealing second. Lubach then hit a sacrifice fly foul down left field line.
Delaware knotted the game in the sixth inning with a bases-loaded hit to left field, the only run that Lotti would allow throughout the series, plummeting her ERA to 1.53.
Giving up the lead late in the game is never good, but, on Sunday, it just set the stage for a freshman to join the list of the weekend’s heroines.
Kayleigh Lotti continues to prove time and time again that nobody in the Colonial Athletic Association can touch her.