The Hofstra softball team extended their win streak to 12 games after sweeping Wagner College in a doubleheader, 2-0 and 16-1, at Bill Edwards Stadium on Tuesday. The Pride have won 20 of their last 21 contests and improve to 30-8 on the 2018 campaign.
Head coach Larissa Anderson said, “… sometimes you feel like you can hit everything … We were chasing the ball out of the zone … If you swing at a bad pitch it’s going to generate a bad result, and that’s what we were doing in the first game. We were just trying to hit everything. In the second game we started swinging at our pitch.”
While the bats took a while to get going, Hofstra’s pitching was hot right out of the gate, as sophomore Sarah Cornell (18-5) fanned 11 batters and only allowed two hits through her complete game shutout. Game one was Cornell’s 10th career shutout while her earned run average fell to 1.69 on the season.
Hofstra’s pitching in Game 2 was no less profound, as freshman hurler Sophie Dandola rang up 10 through five innings (a career high), allowing one run off of four hits. The Seaford, NY, native notched her 12th win of the season and is now holding off opposing batters to a .204 batting average.
“We’re getting great pitching. Cornell and Dandola, they’re doing an unbelievable job and giving us an opportunity to win every game,” Anderson said.
On the sticks, Nikki Michalowski went two-for-three with a double in Game 1 and a grand slam in Game 2. Brielle Pietrafesa and Brittany Allocca knocked in the two RBIs to cement the 2-0 victory for the Pride. Pietrafesa recorded her team-leading 41st RBI of the season, and Allocca recorded her 33rd, while improving her batting average to .315.
“The biggest thing is seven seniors in the lineup. We have so much experience, and really, they just know what to do. They’ve been there; they’ve won a championship before. They are so confident right now,” Anderson said.
Kristin Hallam and Sarah Edwards racked up the RBIs in Game 2, going 2-4 with two RBIs and 1-2 with a three-run triple respectively. Courtney Scarpato launched her fourth long ball of the season to put the Pride up 9-0 in Game 2.
Hofstra capped off the five-inning victory, when Hallam picked a hard-hit ball to shortstop and slid into the bag at second to beat the runner. The Pride’s 12-game win streak is tied for the third longest in Division I, while Hofstra is ranked in the national Top 25 for the first time since 2012.
