By Mark Walters
The Hofstra softball team improved its overall record to 20-15 this week with a 4-3 extra-inning win over Fordham. Pinch-hitter Christie Novatin had a 2-run home run in the eighth inning and second baseman Casey Fee went 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Junior outfielder Kris Root added two hits as the Pride out-hit the Rams 12-4 in its second extra-inning affair in as many days.
Hofstra fell to UConn the day before 1-0 in a tight pitcher’s duel in Hempstead. Huskie second baseman Julianne Towers broke the 0-0 tie with an RBI single in the top of the eighth. Senior pitcher Kayleigh Lotti threw a three-hitter, surrendering two in the eighth. She had 12 strikeouts in the losing effort.
Last weekend the Pride preserved its conference series streak with an 8-0 win over UNC-Wilmington on the road. It hasn’t lost a conference series since 1991, a doubleheader sweep by Drexel.
Lotti pitched a six-hit shutout, which was her 30th of her stellar career. Of her 30 shutouts, 24 of them have come against conference opponents. It was her first shutout while allowing more than four hits. In the third game of the series, she also notched her 900th career strikeout in the second inning, keeping her on pace to reach the 1000 plateau by season’s end. There are presently only three active pitchers in the nation with 1000 strikeouts; Missy Penna of Stanford, Danielle Lawrie of Washington, and Brandice Balschmiter of Massachusetts.
Prior to the Wilmington series, the Pride won a rubber match against Towson at home as well as a series split with Maryland at College Park.
In the third game against Towson, Lotti threw a one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts as Hofstra topped the Tigers 7-0. She was three outs away from a no-hitter and surrendered just two walks. Junior first baseman Michele Depasquale was 3-for-3 with three RBI. The Pride scored a run in the first inning, three in the second, and one in the third, fourth, and fifth innings en route to its conference shutout.
Against Maryland, sophomore Sara Michalowski went 5-for-7 throughout the doubleheader and threw a complete game six-hitter in the second game, which the Pride won 5-1. The Pride could have likely won the first game had it not been for Terrapin Nadine Blackie. Blackie went a perfect 6-for-6 with three home runs and four RBI, including a 3-for-3, two home run, three RBI performance at the plate. The Terps took the first game 4-2.
The Pride return to action this weekend as it hosts Georgia State in a three-game CAA series. The Panthers are tied with the Pride for the lead in the CAA standings with 9-2 league records. Former Pride players Stacy Jackson (1992-95) and Alicia Smith (1997-2000) will have their jerseys retired prior to the 12 p.m. game at Hofstra Softball Stadium this Saturday.
Jackson helped the program reach its first ever NCAA Tournament as a sophomore. She graduated as the team’s all-time leader in pitching victories with 96 and also held the school’s strikeout record with 638, which was broken by Kayleigh Lotti last spring.
Smith remains the school’s all-time record holder with 271 career hits and is fifth in RBI (136), third in runs scored (152), and second in both doubles (54) and triples (14). She also currently ranks fourth in career pitching victories with 71 and fifth in career strikeouts with 372.