The Hofstra softball team’s hot hitting continued in a big way on Saturday, as the Pride launched six home runs and hung 22 total runs in a doubleheader sweep of UNC Wilmington at Fordham’s Bahoshy Field.
“It was good to see the bats were swinging today,” said Hofstra head coach Larissa Anderson after the pair of wins.
The final scores were 14-1 and 8-0 in favor of Hofstra, with both games being shortened as a result of the mercy rule. The two wins pushed the Pride’s win streak to seven games, and wrapped up a three-game series sweep of UNCW in the first Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) series of the season for both teams.
Hofstra has been on firing on all cylinders as of late, and Saturday’s action was no exception. The Pride kicked off the afternoon with a five-run first inning in Game 1 of the doubleheader, capped off by a grand slam from Megan Patierno.
She cleared the bases after UNCW pitcher Sarah Davis plunked Kristin Hallam to start the game, and then issued three consecutive walks while allowing Hallam to score the first run of the game on a passed ball.
The offense would continue to hammer the softball over the course of the game, scoring two runs in the second inning, five in the fifth and two more in the fourth.
Brielle Pietrafesa hit her fourth homer in as many games to knock in a pair of runs, while Courtney Scarpato jacked a solo shot and Brittany Allocca drove in three more with a towering blast to left-center field. In all, the Pride hit four home runs in Game 1, just one shy of the school record for homers in a game.
Alexis Goeke capped off the offensive onslaught with a two-run single in the bottom of the fourth inning, the first two RBI of her collegiate career.
While Hofstra’s bats came alive, Sarah Cornell kept the Seahawks quiet en route to her ninth win of the season. She went the distance in the five-inning game, striking out nine while only allowing one hit, a home run from UNCW’s Hannah Adamczyk.
Her performance in the opener was one-upped by Sophie Dandola in the second game of the day. The freshman continued her impressive season with a complete-game shutout, only allowing two hits over her six innings of work.
At the dish, while the Pride couldn’t jump on Rylee Pate quite as early as they did on her teammate Davis in Game 1, Hofstra lifted another pair of homers in a five-run third inning to put themselves ahead.
With one out and the bases loaded in the third, Sarah Edwards stepped up and promptly unloaded them with the team’s second grand slam of the afternoon, putting the Pride ahead 4-0.
Two batters later, Patierno would hit her second round-tripper of the day to make it a 5-0 game.
The Pride would add three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to activate the mercy rule, with the game-ender coming courtesy of Hallam stealing home on a wild pitch. Her second successful steal of home of the afternoon made it 8-0, and the game came to an end with Hofstra taking the sweep to kick off CAA competition.
Next up for the Pride will be a non-conference tilt with the University of Connecticut on Tuesday afternoon at Bill Edwards Stadium, with first pitch set for 3 p.m.
