A recent trip to Florida for the Under Armour Showcase yielded a 6-11 record for the Pride softball team. On Friday, Hofstra fell to Ball State 2-1, but beat BYU 4-0 as senior pitcher Kayleigh Lotti pitched a three-hit shutout with 14 strikeouts in what turned out to be head coach Bill Edwards’ 700th career win, joining 22 other active coaches with 700 career wins. In his 20th season at Hofstra, Edwards and Tennessee Tech’s Tory Acheson are the only two coaches to reach such a milestone in 20 seasons or less.
The next day at the Showcase saw the Pride drop both of its games, the first a 3-2 decision to Florida Gulf Coast, the latter a 6-4 loss to Indiana. In the final game of Hofstra’s Southern portion of its schedule on Sunday, senior catcher Carolann Lubach had a two-run double in the fifth inning and the Pride broke open the game with five runs in the seventh to beat Loyola Marymount 8-2.
The Pride finished the southern part of its schedule with a 6-11 record. Hofstra improved to 7-11 Wednesday when it beat St. John’s 6-1 in Jamaica, NY.
Michele DePasquale went 2-for-3 with a home run and four RBI to lead Hofstra over the Red Storm. It was DePasquale’s third career homer, two of which have come at St. John’s. Lotti earned the win as she threw a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts and no walks.
The Pride return to action this weekend when it opens up CAA play with a three-game series at George Mason.The women’s lacrosse team snapped their three-game losing streak with a win in Maryland at Mount St. Mary’s on Wednesday.
In the 19-5 victory, junior attack Ashley Jones had a game-high five points and junior midfielder Corrine Gandolfi continued her on-field dominance by adding three goals.
If confidence has been an issue lately, the team showed a lot of mental grit and improvement as they regained their footing after being down 4-1 early on. While Mt. Mary’s had a few early goals, junior K’Leigh Vanaman started the battery in which the Pride scored seven unanswered goals in less than nine minutes.
The Pride continued to trample on Mount St. Mary’s during the second half as they scored five straight unanswered goals to increase their lead, 13-4.
While the Pride hit a bit of a road bump as of late, all of their losses come from very competitive teams such as national powerhouse, Northwestern, and Notre Dame. Saturday’s loss to Notre Dame seemed like a reoccurring bad dream as they dropped another high-scoring affair to the Fightin’ Irish. This time however, instead of a back and forth nail biter the Pride was not able to get within two goals in17-15 defeat.
Also adding to the offense were freshman Maryann Miller with three goals and sophomore Stephanie Rice and senior Cat Thoreson with two goals apiece. On the defensive end of things, senior Alysse Ruszkowski set the pace with a team-high four ground balls and two caused turnovers for the Pride. Junior goalie Mary Cuddihy earned the win for the Pride as well as three saves.
Increasing their record to 3-3, the team has a lot to look forward to as they are sitting pretty back at .500. The Pride will wrap-up their road trip on Monday when they head to New Jersey to take on Rutgers. The Pride returns home to host Long Island rival, Stony Brook, at James M. Shuart Stadium on Wednesday, March 25. The Pride faced both teams last season and those match ups result in a loss at Rutgers and a win over Stony Brook.