The resilience of the Hofstra softball team was on full display on Friday, April 12, when they came back to defeat the Drexel University Dragons on the road by a score of 9-8 in eight innings. The Pride scored the game’s final five runs, bringing in four of them to tie it up at eight in the seventh inning before adding a ninth and final run to secure their victory in the extra inning.
For the Pride, runs were scored by Jaycee Ruberti, Lydia Witkowski, Devyn Losco, Alexis Goeke and Imani Myint, who scored once each. Kasey Collins and Kristin Hallam added two runs apiece. Ruberti, Giordano and Goeke all tallied two RBIs, with Angelina Ioppolo and Losco each batting in another.
Madison Burns pitched all eight innings for Hofstra, allowing just nine hits and eight runs against 36 batters. She also tallied five strikeouts and ended with just two walks.
Hofstra struggled mightily out of the gate, not scoring a single run through the first four innings. A home run by Drexel’s Linda Rush in the first inning set the tone for the first half of the contest as Drexel poured on three more runs in the second inning to grab a 4-0 advantage.
The Pride was unable to make up any ground until the fifth frame, when Ruberti earned her two RBIs with a single that brought home Collins and Myint. A homer in the top of the sixth from Goeke allowed a run from Losco, which knotted the score at four. It didn’t take long for momentum to swing back in favor of the Dragons, however, as Taylor Lee’s two-run homer and additional scores from Sarah Clinton and Reilly Jo Swanson doubled their scoring total and put the Pride back in a four-run hole.
Some last-minute heroics from Hofstra allowed them to force extra innings. After a fielding error from Drexel in the top of the seventh inning, Collins scored to bring the deficit to three. Some excellent at-bats for the Pride opened up the field as they earned three more crucial runs from Hallam, Ruberti and Witkowski to tie up the score one last time.
After the Dragons couldn’t score in the bottom of the seventh, the game entered extra innings with a score of 8-8. After Collins struck out in the first at-bat of the eighth, Hallam earned a single, which she followed up by stealing second base and advancing to third thanks to a wild pitch. The stolen base for Hallam put her in third-place all time in stolen bases for the Pride.
A groundout from Giordano batted in Hallam, which gave the Pride their first and only lead of the contest. After three quick outs in the bottom of the eighth, Hofstra emerged victorious after a thrilling comeback.
The win brought the Pride’s season record to 17-19 and 4-7 in Colonial Athletic Association play heading into their double-header at Drexel the next day, Saturday, April 13.
