The Hofstra Pride softball team lost at home to the Stony Brook University Seawolves in the Battle of Long Island on Tuesday, March 22, by a score of 7-0. The loss dropped the Pride to 5-16 for the season.
“We didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but we continued to fight and compete. We had better quality at-bats as the game went on,” said Hofstra head coach Adrienne Clark.
The game opened up with a scoreless first inning, with each team quickly reaching three outs. In the second inning, Stony Brook came out strong with two base hits driving home Corinne Badger for the 1-0 lead. A single to left field by Shauna Ness, along with a throwing error, were the catalysts allowing the Seawolves to bring in two more runs for a 3-0 advantage.
Stony Brook added another score in the fourth inning to go up 4-0. The Pride was able to get one runner on base in the bottom of the inning but failed to get on the scoreboard. The Seawolves continued to separate themselves from Hofstra, tacking on three more runs in the fifth inning to extend their lead to 7-0.
In the sixth inning, Hofstra was able to get two runners on base, but the inning closed with a ground out to the pitcher. The Pride had one last chance to get something going in the seventh inning, but was unsuccessful despite getting two on base, and the game ended in a shutout defeat.
For Stony Brook, pitcher Dawn Bodrug struck out 15 batters in seven innings of action. Alyssa Costello led the team with three hits on four at-bats.
Hofstra’s Julia Apsel pitched 2.1 innings with one strikeout. Annabella Pisapia came in relief and pitched 1.2 innings before Nikki Mullin closed out the game, striking out three batters. Chelsea Manto, Meghan Giordano, Madison McKevitt and Amanda Maffucci each had one hit in the afternoon game.
“[Mullin] has done such a phenomenal job of being able to come into a game at any point in the game and shut it down, and I have never seen a pitcher quite like her with that ability to be able to just come in and get it done,” Clark said.
The Pride go back on the road on Thursday, March 24, to take on Howard University at the Nationals Youth Academy. The first pitch is set for 2 p.m.