The Hofstra Softball team took a trip up to Mansfield, Connecticut to battle in a doubleheader against the Huskies of the University of Connecticut on Friday. The Pride managed to split the series. After dropping the first game 1-4, it came storming back and took game two by the score of 10-2.
In game one, the lone Hofstra run was scored on an RBI single to center field by catcher Kaitlyne Musa, her fifth on the year. Freshman pitcher Sarah Cornell suffered her seventh loss on the year, bringing her overall record to 10-7 this season. Though she took the loss, Cornell has had a superb start to her collegiate career, with 72 of the team’s 109 strikeouts, 12 of their 17 complete games and the lowest ERA on the team (3.63). She also has as many wins as all the other pitchers wins and losses combined.
Hofstra had just three hits in the first game, two from Musa and the other from leadoff hitter Kristin Hallam, who leads the team in at-bats (91) and is second on the team in batting average (.297).
The Pride certainly saved their best effort for later in the day, as game two featured more than three times as many hits and ten times as many runs. Star second basemen Lacey Clark started the scoring for both teams in the top of the second with a solo home run, yet it wasn’t until the fifth inning that the scoring gates were blown wide open by the Hofstra offense.
The Pride managed to drive in eight more runs all sparked by another solo home run to straight away center field by junior right fielder Brielle Pietrafesa. She would again come up in the fifth inning, drawing a walk and driving in another run for Hofstra. A total of seven of the Pride’s nine batters were able to get a hit, but it was Clark who most definitely stole the show going 3/4 on the afternoon with three RBIs and scoring twice herself. Freshman pitcher Alyssa Irons picked up her first win of the season after losing her first six.
After the split series, the Hofstra’s record sits at a respectable 12-15, with an upcoming schedule that includes CAA foe University of Delaware on April 8th and 9th.
