Senior pitcher Callie Osborne (Oshawa, Ontario - pictured) was named the CAA Pitcher of the Week for the second week in a row and the fourth time in the last five weeks, it was announced today by the league office.
Osborne capped off a terrific regular season by picking up a pair of four-hit shutouts in the Pride's three-game sweep of Drexel, which clinched the regular season conference championship. Osborne tossed a four-hitter in Hofstra's 7-0 win on Saturday, then came back on Sunday with another four-hitter as the Pride won its regular season finale 8-0. Osborne also allowed four hits in seven innings and took a no-decision in the Pride's 3-2, 12-inning win over Stony Brook on Wednesday. For the week, she threw 21 innings, tallying a 2-0 record, 0.33 ERA, and 20 strikeouts, while allowing only 12 hits.
The 2-0 week stretched Osborne's school-record winning streak to 19 games, the longest-active streak in Division I. Osborne currently stands at 22-5 with 12 shutouts on the season, and has not lost a game since falling 1-0 to Seton Hall back on March 19 in a head-to-head battle with All-American pitcher Megan Meyer. She is 9-0 with six shutouts in CAA play, and has picked up shutouts in 11 of her last 17 starts overall.
The only blemish on the week for Osborne was when she gave up a home run to Stony Brook's Hayley Durham in the sixth inning on Wednesday, which tied the score at 1-1. It was the first home run that Osborne has allowed since the second inning of her opening day start against nationally-ranked Stanford. She went 161 innings pitched without allowing a long ball, before Durham pulled a change-up over the fence for her Stony Brook record 16th homer of the season.
The sweep of Drexel enabled the Pride (38-14-1, 14-2 CAA) to clinch the regular season title and the right to host the conference tournament this week. Hofstra opens CAA Championship play on Thursday at 3:30 p.m., when it takes on fourth-seeded James Madison. Second-seeded Towson meets third-seeded Drexel in the first game of the day at 12 noon.
The regular season title marks the 14th year in a row that Hofstra has won a conference championship of some kind (either regular season or tournament). The Pride also has a streak of seven straight conference tournament titles that it will put on the line this week, including the first three since the CAA was formed (2002-04) and its last four as members of the America East (1998-2001).
Osborne was named the CAA Pitcher of the Year in 2004, when she finished with a 12-3 record and a school-record 0.79 ERA. Her 19-game winning streak this season shattered the previous school mark of 11 straight wins, which was held by three players. Her two-year record with the Pride is 34-8, including 15-1 against CAA opponents, with the only loss a 10-inning defeat to Delaware last year.
