Hofstra softball seniors Lacey Clark, Jessica Peslak and Christie Sinacori enjoyed their final regular season home game with an 8-0 victory over Elon in a five-inning rout Sunday afternoon to sweep the Phoenix in the doubleheader.
Peslak tossed four shutout innings with two strikeouts and no walks in her fourth appearance of the season, scattering five hits to improve her senior record to 2-3.
“To have Peslak get that win in the second game on her Senior Day, it just lifts the team. The team just rallied around the seniors and they went out and they played hard for them,” said head coach Larissa Anderson.
Hofstra’s offense produced at least one run in all four frames they batted in, beginning with three in the first inning.
Brittany Allocca opened the flood gates with her seventh two-bagger of the season, scoring Kristin Hallam. Second baseman Lacey Clark recorded her 23rd run batted in with a sacrifice fly to right field, the first of four sacrifice fly balls in this game. Megan Patierno capped the inning with a screaming line drive up the middle to plate Nikki Michalowski.
Patierno finished the game with two hits and two RBI, bringing her team-leading total to 26 runs batted in this year.
The Pride tacked on two more runs in the second and third innings to extend the lead to 5-0 after sacrifice flies from Allocca and Courtney Scarpato.
It seemed Elon’s pitcher Kenna Quinn, a top hurler in the CAA, was settling in for the Phoenix – just allowing a few runs scraped by from the Pride, but Hofstra was not done.
“I’m just telling them to get a good pitch you can get extended on. Don’t let her jam you up. It’s controlling their approach,” Anderson said.
Now up 7-0 in the fourth inning, Coach Anderson called in for a pinch-hitter to replace Sarah Edwards, who went 1-for-2. Senior Christie Sinacori was called to grab a bat.
Sinacori, making just her 15th at-bat of 2017, was brought in with one runner on base. Tallying her fourth RBI of the season, Sinacori laced a hard ground ball through the right side of the infield to score Clark to make it an 8-0 ballgame. The dugout and crowd went ballistic.
“You can just see the energy when Sinacori gets that hit to put the eight-spot up on the board,” Anderson said.
Going to the fifth inning, the Pride needed to halt the Phoenix from scoring for just one more inning to end the game on a mercy rule.
Peslak stayed in the game for one more batter, surrendering a lead-off base hit by Emily Roper. Peslak was then taken out and given a standing ovation from the Pride faithful.
Alyssa Irons replaced the senior, recording all three outs without a runner crossing home, but this one the first time all day that Elon threatened.
With one out and the bases loaded, Irons found herself in a jam. She managed to get out of it with a grounder back to her, getting the lead runner out at home. The next batter, Allocca made a tremendous play to her left to end the ballgame, stopping a hard hit ground ball from trickling down the right field line to score Elon baserunners.
Hofstra improved to 21-17 overall and 9-4 in conference play, jumping to second place in the CAA standings. The Pride returns to action April 25 on the road in a doubleheader against Binghamton beginning at 3 p.m.
