By Tyler McCord, Staff Writer
Hofstra’s 13 game winning streak was snapped on Sunday, against conference rival, Towson with a 3-4 loss. Although Hofstra won the series against the Tigers two games to one, Towson handed Hofstra its first conference loss of the season on Sunday.
Towson jumped to an early 4-0 lead on Hofstra, which proved to be the difference maker in the game. Hofstra made a near comeback, scoring two runs in the third inning on a homerun from senior first baseman Michele DePasquale, and one run in the final inning, on an RBI single by freshman outfielder Tessa Ziemba but Towson held off the Pride for a 4-3 victory down in Maryland. Senior centerfielder Kris Root had six hits over the weekend while junior shortstop Trisha Dreslinski and DePasquale each had a homerun.
Following the loss to Towson, Hofstra fell just short of Fordham by a final of 1-0. This was only the second time all season that Hofstra had to bounce back after losing two games in a row. “It was a battle. Sometimes you win those pitcher’s duels and sometimes you lose them,” said Pride head coach Bill Edwards about the game against Fordham. Indeed, a pitcher’s duel it was. Hofstra was held to only two hits in the game, while Fordham edged the Pride with three. Inside the circle, both pitchers combined to account for 21 strikeouts; eight coming from Galati and 13 from Mineau of Fordham. It was a seventh inning homerun hit by Pellechio that put Fordham ahead, and where they would eventually stay. With a scoreless seventh inning from the Pride, Fordham squeaked by for the 1-0 win in Hempstead.
Wednesday afternoon the Pride took on St. John’s for the second time this season. Like the previous game between these two teams, Hofstra jumped out to a 2-0 and never looked back. “For us to come out today and square it [the ball] up was very important,” Edwards said. “They know how to bounce back and now it’s just a matter of consistently doing the same thing day in and day out.”
After a two run first inning for the Pride, St. John’s scored on an error to reduce the deficit by one. Then Hofstra strung a few hits together in the fourth inning and put together a five-run inning which included two solo homeruns, from senior outfielder Christie Novatin and senior third baseman Sara Michalowski and an RBI single delivered by Ziemba. In the top of the sixth inning the Red Storm scored on a close play at the plate but then surrendered three more runs in Hofstra’s following at-bat, which then resulted in the game being called by the chief umpire after six innings. On a day where the wind was blowing everything up into the air, Hofstra stayed on top of the ball throughout the game and put together some timely hits together which, in result, gave them 10 runs. “We had some great swings, some great approaches to the ball and a bunch of loud outs,” said Edwards. “I am really pleased with the way we came out of the batter’s box today.”
This upcoming weekend Hofstra will host UNC-Wilmington for an in-conference, 3 game series. “Consistency is key,” Edwards said. “We have to continue to pitch well and play defense. If we pitch it and play defense, defense and pitching wins championships. We have to do all of the little things so we can create scoring opportunities. Get em’ on, get em’ over and get em’ in.” Hofstra will be taking an overall record of 32-8 into the matchup while the Seahawks of UNCW are just 8-35 this season.
