By Tim Robertson

A grueling schedule to start the 2008 campaign awaits coach Bill Edwards and his Pride softball team, who fly to Florida Friday for 11 games in 10 days – including giant contests against 4th-ranked Tennessee and 10th-ranked Florida.

“I think the SEC is the best conference out there… We’re going to play four of those, so it’s going to be interesting to see how we do,” Edwards said Wednesday. Mississippi and South Carolina are the other SEC teams the Pride plays.

The Pride, who received six votes in the latest top 25 poll, open against the Vols, with junior ace Kayleigh Lotti expected to start. Lotti, last season’s CAA Player of the Year, will need to step up against the tough teams early for a chance at an All-American spot, Edwards said.

“Does she have the ability? Yes. But now she’s going to have to prove it against the rest of the country,” Edwards, who begins his 19th season at Hofstra, said. “She has a shot this year if she comes through against three or four of the top teams on this southern trip.”

Edwards’ club opens with four tournaments down south in a month’s span against several ranked teams and the U.S. National team.

“It should be a very special award for us and our program to prepare [the national team] and play against them, but we’re not taking them any different than we take any other team,” he said.

The Pride, currently the highest ranked team in the northeast, open 2008 after picking up its 10th straight conference championship last season, but this year’s squad will look different than last year’s, with the departure of the all-time homerun leader Ashley Lane. But, Edwards still expects some “pop” from his returning core.

“Everyone in our line-up is going to have to pick up for Ashley Lane. We may not hit a whole lot of homeruns this year, but that’s OK, because we’re working on a whole new system. When people watch us play they’re going to say, ‘wow, where did this come from,'” he said.

Edwards relied on big innings last year in order to build large early leads. His 2007 team showed aggressiveness on the base paths with 47 steals, and sometimes the risks paid off. The team put up 10 runs twice on eventual CAA tourney runner-up Georgia State, but other times the Pride didn’t get the big hit in key situations. In 13 of its 15 losses, the Pride scored two or fewer runs.

This year, Edwards and his coaching staff have put in a new “offensive set,” designed to score one-run at a time, which could build an early lead for Hofstra’s pitchers, but perhaps not as big as some of the power-based rallies last season did.

“We’re going to put players on, steal more, hit-and-run more. We’re going to do more to create runs,” Edwards said. “If we get one person on, we’re going to play for that one run.”

It’s a season of change for Edwards, who said he will try to abandon trying to pitch Lotti three complete games in a weekend like he did toward the end of last season. Instead, he will rely on his other three pitchers more.

“The ideal situation is to have all four do what they do efficiently all year long, so that we don’t have to ride Kayleigh until we get to conferences or throw Kayleigh through conference play. All four of our pitchers have an ability to win,” Edwards said.

Each of Hofstra’s pitchers brings something different to the chalked circle.

Lotti is purely a strikeout master. She has 502 K’s in two seasons, placing her 136 shy of the school record. Lotti stormed through the CAA last year, losing just one contest.

Junior Joanna Kralowetz is the team’s Mariano Riveria, circa 10 years ago. She gave up 1.9 runs a game and walked four in 66 innings of work, which came mainly in relief.

Senior Courtney Oliver, a starter, brings more movement on her pitches to the circle than Lotti, which provides a much different look. Oliver ended her junior year with a 7-6 mark, but her team spotted her just one run in four of those losses.

Then there is the newcomer, Sara Michalowski, about whom Edwards is certainly excited. The Philadelphia native has a very late breaking ball with lots of velocity, her coach said. She also has a chance of winning the first base job, he said.

“[Michalowski] throws hard. The thing with Sara is we brought her in to hit and play [infield], and then she exploded as a pitcher,” the coach said.

Despite fantastic – at times highlight reel-worthy – defense from the returners, only two of the eight positions are locked up, Edwards said. Junior Carolann Lubach will start behind the dish, and junior Erika Bernstein will roam center field. A strong freshman in Trisha Dreslinski will challenge her sister, Pam, at shortstop and senior Genevieve Haney at third, Edwards said. Improved sophomores Kris Root and Christie Novatin will vie for spots at the corner outfield spots and first base.

The Pride, with 15 returners, will go for conference championship number 11 in as many years – but not before taking on a difficult bunch of teams to kick it all off.

“The first weekend alone will really test us,” Edwards said. “We’ve got a road ahead of us, this is very challenging.”