By Tim Robertson
It’s all about timing, that’s what coach says.
The Pride utilized a shaky pitching performance from Fordham’s starter and timely hitting on Wednesday to plow through the Rams with an 8-1 win, its 28th of the season.
Fordham starter Beckah Wiggins lasted two innings, walked four and gave up two hits while allowing four runs (only two earned), which put her team too far behind to catch up.
Wiggins, to her credit, pitched a complete game win yesterday over St. Peter’s, allowing six hits and one run.
“She’s a very good pitcher, but I think she threw a lot yesterday and throwing back-to-back she may have been a little tired. We were expecting that, believe it or not,” coach Bill Edwards said.
The Pride scored four times in the second inning with Melissa Hodge, Carolann Lubach and Kris Root notching one RBI apiece to give the Pride three runs. The other run came on a passed ball, which allowed Erika Bernstein to race in from third.
Fordham, who drops to 23-22, pulled Wiggins for the third inning and replaced her with Allison Twarowski, who also pitched yesterday. Twarowski retired six straight Pride hitters, but ran into trouble in the fifth.
The Pride put three runners on in the fifth without a hit. Lubach walked, Root was hit by a pitch, and Casey Fee reached on an error by Twarowski.
Freshman Sara Michalowski then hammered a pitch to right field off the fence for a double, which scored two runners. Fee then came home on a wild pitch from Twarowski by sliding under the tag on a close play at the plate.
Senior Pam Dreslinski added an RBI double in the sixth to put the Pride up 8-1.
In the circle, Edwards marched four pitchers out there, with no one pitching more than two innings. Senior Courtney Oliver started and didn’t allow a run while fanning one in two innings. Michalowski surrendered the only run on back-to-back base hits to begin the fourth, but settled down after that and retired the side. Michalowski earned the win, her sixth of the season.
Kayleigh Lotti entered in the fifth and pitched two quick innings of shutout softball with three strikeouts to add to her career total that now sits seven shy of breaking the 13-year-old team record of 638 set by Stacy Jackson in 1995.
Old reliable Joanna Kralowetz closed it out in the seventh and gave up two singles, but a spectacular double play (and close to a game-ending triple play) set-up by Michele DePasquale ended any threat – and hope – of a Ram comeback.
“When you have your whole pitching staff goes out there and gets ready for the weekend and throws great… it’s just a good day at the ballpark, as they say,” Edwards said.
Over the weekend, the Pride flew to Atlanta for a CAA series against the ever-dangerous Georgia State. Hofstra beat the Panthers twice, but dropped a nail bitter on Saturday despite plenty of hitting.
The Pride collected 12 hits in the first game, but didn’t get the timely hitting to push any runs across,
Edwards said, and the Pride dropped their 10th game of the season 1-0. Lotti threw a complete game four-hitter with six strikeouts. The loss ended the Pride’s eight-game winning streak.
“We left so many runners on base. We had so many opportunities to break the game open, but couldn’t. We couldn’t get a run. It was very frustrating to watch,” Edwards said.
Edwards’ club then got back on track with a 5-2 victory, led by Oliver. The senior drove in two runs, hit a double, and starred in the chalked circle. She fanned nine and allowed one run on five hits in 5.2 innings for her seventh win.
On Sunday, the Pride’s offense put that timely hitting to work with two home runs and four doubles and scored 15 times to win easily 15-2 in five innings due to the mercy rule.
Oliver hit her third homer of the season, added a single and drove in a team-high four RBIs. Through Wednesday, Oliver was tied with Lubach for the team lead with 23 RBIs.
In the third, Stefanie Feinstein smacked a pinch-hit three-run homer to break the game open as the Pride scored five times in the third.
“We hit every game down there like it could’ve been a 15-2 game, and it just shows the uniqueness of softball… that you can get [a lot] of hits and not score,” Edwards said.
Lotti picked up her 11th win as she allowed two runs on four hits with seven strikeouts in a complete game performance.
The Pride takes on CAA opponent the Dragons of Drexel University this weekend in a three-game series beginning at noon on Saturday at the Hofstra Softball Stadium.