By Tim Robertson
Thanks to Pride pitching in one game, and hitting in the other, Hofstra knocked off two ranked softball teams last weekend, before succumbing to North Carolina in the Adidas Invitational championship.
In the team’s final invitational tournament of the year, the Pride tallied six victories in eight games to even its record at 10-10. Only the Tar Heels and Virginia Tech bested the Pride.
“We got three great, quality wins, so things are pretty good,” coach Bill Edwards said. “We feel good about it, but at the same time there are things we need to work on, things I have to figure out, things the players have to get better at.”
What’s the trick about knocking off the 20th and 24th ranked teams in the country? The players didn’t know what ranking their opponents held. Edwards didn’t hype the games, didn’t use the rankings as extra motivation. A 9-7 victory against Georgia Tech and a thrilling 3-2 extra-innings affair with North Carolina State came solely on the energy the team played with all weekend, the coach said.
“We play with a lot of fire now. This team has a little bit more energy [than past Hofstra teams] during the course of a game,” Edwards said.
Despite knocking the Yellow Jacket pitching around for nine runs on 10 hits, and scoring efficiently throughout the weekend, Edwards said the Pride need to work on moving base runners and taking advantage of scoring opportunities, instead of waiting for a big homerun. As the Georgia trip three weeks ago displayed, trouble follows when the Pride don’t “get them on, get them over and get them in.”
“We have to work real hard on sacrifice bunts, advance runners and do the little things to move our runners over one base, and then get a single,” Edwards said.
Very little negativity and gaps can be found in the way the Pride competed in Clearwater, Fla., and as usual, pitching continued to pace the Pride and dominated games when Edwards needed it most.
Sophomore Kayleigh Lotti backed up her coach’s stance, that she is the “real deal”, with a gritty nine innings of four-hit softball against 24th ranked N.C. State. She threw 135 pitches, struck out a dozen, walked four and allowed just one earned run in the 3-2 win. Lotti, suffereing a loss only 12 hours later against Georgia Tech, returned to Long Island with a 5-3 mark and a team-low 1.85 ERA.
“When she takes them on, she can beat anyone in the country,” Edwards bragged. “She can totally dominate a game.”
“Bronco” Joanna Kralowetz, a sophomore, displayed her own pitching prowess throughout the weekend, bailing out Lotti in Sunday’s game and handed Georgia Tech its fifth loss in 30 games. She allowed just two hits and no runs in three and two-thirds innings, and struck out five.
“She pitched great and under pressure, so we’re very satisfied with our starters and having someone to come in and shut things down,” Edwards said.
As much as Kralowetz dominated the Yellow Jackets, the Pride’s offense stepped up to the challenge of overcoming what was at one time a four-run lead, impressing Edwards. Four singles and senior Ashley Lane’s third double of the game drove in a combined five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to cap the scoring.
“To battle back in that game, to get five runs, to get key hitting, to jump on their mistake,” Edwards said, “it gives us confidence and shows the character [of the team].”
Ashley Lane was one of the many softball players to step up this weekend in Florida.