By Tim Robertson

Dominant Pride pitching continued Wednesday as the Hofstra softball team blanked the Blackbirds of Long Island University 2-0 behind freshman Sara Michalowski, who earned a win by pitching a gem, and came away with a pair of hits at the plate.

For the fourth straight game, the Pride shut out its opponent as Michalowski threw five scoreless innings, allowed two hits and just one walk. Entering the game, Hofstra sported a 1.19 team ERA, which ranks the team tenth best in the country. The excellent pitching is matched by the Pride’s superb offense. The Pride, who didn’t commit an error for the sixth straight game, ranks fifth in the nation in fielding percentage at .978.

Hofstra improves to 32-10 on the year, three losses better than a season ago through the same point in the year.

The only jam Michalowski encountered came in the second inning when two runners reached, but senior Pam Dreslinski began a traditional 6-4-3 double play (shortstop-second base-first base, for those of you not scoring at home).

The Brooklyn-based LIU squad and Hofstra played four scoreless innings before an error and a mishap cost LIU the game, as the Pride scored two in the fifth. With two on, Michalowski knocked an infield single to load the bases, and senior Courtney Oliver came up big – again – with a groundball that escaped under the glove of LIU second baseman Raylene Asman, which brought home Hofstra’s first and only two runs of the game.

Records continued to break themselves on Wednesday, as sophomore Michele DePasquale knocked a single in the second inning to increase her school-record hitting streak to 20 games, and junior Kayleigh Lotti came on in relief to strike out four batters, increasing her school-record career total to 655.

Michalowski moved to 7-3 with the win, and Lotti, who pitched two scoreless innings, earned her fifth save, which breaks her former single-season best of four, set last year.

Heading into the LIU game, Hofstra sat 32nd in the latest NCAA RPI poll, best among CAA teams. In fact, Georgia State, the next best team, sat 65th in the country. Only eight non-BCS schools ranked higher than the Pride. (A BCS school is defined as a team in the SEC, ACC, Pac-10, Big East, Big XII or Big Ten).

The Pride played without speedster second baseman Casey Fee, who reportedly suffered a minor injury on Sunday against Drexel. She is expected to return this weekend when the Pride travel to Delaware for a three-game set against its CAA rivals.