By Josh Harman
Losing two out of five games this late in the season does not happen often to the Pride softball team. This week was a rough one for the Pride as it experienced a pair of doubleheaders and a single game versus Northeast (NEC) and Big East foes.
This past Tuesday, the Pride, winners of 15 of its last 18 games, visited Brooklyn to face Long Island University. The Blackbirds are atop the NEC with a 15-1 record. Initially, the Pride has no problems and looked to be running away with its 24 victory of the year, but a late run proved costly and the Pride fell 7-5.
Hailey Clark blasted the Pride’s lead onward and upward twice. Her solo shot in the second inning and three-run bomb in the third built up a 5-1 lead. With eight games left in the regular season plus the conference tournament, Clark is five home runs behind Danielle Stewart’s single-season record of 17 in 2003. For the Pride, Clark hit two home runs for the tenth time in school history. Ironically, it would be home runs that did the Pride in. Sonia Zapata and Alicia Ciccarello hit longshots off of Alexis Alcantara and Adrienne Clark respectively to make it 7-5. The Pride left three runners on base in the final two innings and dropped to 23-17 on the season. Adrienne Clark sees her record fall to 8-10.
Last week the Pride began four games in four days with a slight misstep. The hitting was nonexistent in the first game against St. John’s University. The Pride had only two hits before Nicole Klemm smacked a two-run homer over the leftfield wall to close the gap to 3-2. Katie Watson came on in relief and stopped the Pride’s rally for the save.
It is the third loss for the Pride at the Hofstra Softball Stadium, only the first time since 2000 that the Pride had lost three or more games at home.
The outcome of the middle three games of the week was much more to the liking of the Pride. The pitching staff was indomitable in Game 2 versus the Red Storm and in the two-game set versus Wagner.
Junior Callie Osborne threw a shutout against St. John’s in Game 2, only allowing four hits. Ashley Lane launched a two-run homer in the midst of a five-run fifth, capped off by designated player Adrienne Clark clearing the bases with a three-run round-tripper in the 7-0 win.
Are you sensing a common theme yet? While not completely relying on the home run, the Pride’s offense has gotten quite a boost from the long-ball. The Pride has surpassed the old home run mark of 29, but is still 19 home runs behind the 2003 mark of 50.
On Sunday, the Pride recorded two shutouts against Wagner (21-24-1) and scored 14 runs in 8-0 and 6-0 wins. Tara Ulrich hit her sixth home run of the season and Ashley Lane had a two-run double to give the Pride a five-run 1st inning in Game 1. 3 runs in the 5th innings would cap off the victory. Adrienne Clark picked up her 8th win of the year.
In Game 2, the Pride was kept within the stadium walls, but three run-scoring doubles and a triple put the game out of reach early. Osborne struck out 10 in the game.
Ashley Lane continued her bid for CAA Rookie of the Year by being named Rookie of the Week for the third time this season. She batted .562 for the week.
The Pride was supposed to be in action today against UConn, but the Huskies chose to cancel the game to play some Big East conference games that were postponed earlier in the year. The game will not be made up.
The Pride will next play George Mason at noon on Saturday in a doubleheader and then a single game Sunday morning at 11 at the Hofstra Softball Stadium. This is the next-to-last conference series before the tournament starts in two weeks.