The Colonial Athletic Association champion Hofstra Softball team, winners of its last 10 conference tournaments, will host a regional of the NCAA Division I Softball Tournament for the second straight year when it takes on Harvard on Friday at 2:30 p.m. Hofstra Softball Stadium.
Hofstra (40-13), which enters the NCAA Tournament on a 15-game winning streak, drew the Ivy League champion Crimson (31-13) in its first game. The other contest at the Hempstead Regional will feature Baylor (45-13), the eighth seed in the tournament, against America East champion Albany (33-15) in the first game of Friday's action at 12 noon.
The Pride earned the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament by winning the Colonial Athletic Association championship, defeating Georgia State 3-1 in the title game on Saturday. Hofstra has won all six CAA Tournaments since the league was founded in 2002, after also winning the last four tournaments it participated in as members of the America East Conference from 1998-2001. The freshmen on this season's Pride team were in third grade the last time Hofstra did not win its conference tournament.
Sophomore pitcher Kayleigh Lotti (South Attleboro, MA) continued her stellar season by earning Most Outstanding Player honors at the CAA Tournament, winning all three games in the circle while allowing three runs and striking out 35. The 2007 CAA Pitcher of the Year, Lotti enters NCAA play with a 22-4 record, including wins in each of her last 16 decisions. She also set the Hofstra single-season strikeout record at the CAA Tournament (304) and ranks in the top 15 in the nation in strikeouts per seven innings (9.88). She has earned the victory 11 times during the Pride's 15-game winning streak, a span during which opponents are hitting only .133 off her.
Offensively, the Pride led by senior outfielder Ashley Lane (Westbury, NY), who enters postseason holding Hofstra school records for career homers (40) and runs batted in (180 ) by wide margins. Tara Ulrich (2003-06) ranks second in career homers with 29, while Lisa Ciavardini (1998-2001) ranks second in career RBI with 146. Lane is hitting .321 with a team-leading nine homers and 44 RBI this season. Junior shortstop Pam Dreslinski (Kingsville, OH) is hitting .283 with six homers and 35 RBI, while sophomore catcher Carolann Lubach (Langley, WA) is batting .301 with 30 RBI. Lubach hit her first homer of the season in the CAA Championship game against Georgia State, a two-run shot in the third inning, which give the Pride a 2-0 lead.
Hofstra will be making its 10th NCAA Tournament appearance all-time, including its fifth in a row and eighth in the last nine years. The only exception was in 2002, when the CAA did not have an automatic bid to the NCAA's. The Pride has won at least one NCAA Tournament game in each of its last six appearances, including four in the 2004 NCAA Tournament, when it fell one win shy of the Women's College World Series. In the last four years, Hofstra has NCAA Tournament victories over Nebraska, Auburn, Stanford, Arizona State, Penn State and Southern Illinois (twice).
Last year, the Pride hosted a regional for the first time since 1993, defeating Penn State 5-4 in eight innings in the first game, before falling to seventh-ranked Arizona State 2-0 in eight innings in the winner's bracket. Arizona State went on to capture the regional, defeating Penn State in the championship 6-0.
Hofstra holds a 5-0 lead in the series with Harvard, although the teams have not faced each other since Hofstra won a doubleheader in the 1998 season. The Pride has never faced Albany or Baylor, although Hofstra Head Coach Bill Edwards will get a chance to return the favor when he hosts Baylor Head Coach Glenn Moore. Moore was the head coach at LSU back in 2000, when the Pride traveled to Baton Rouge for the NCAA Regionals. Moore's LSU team edged Edwards' Hofstra squad 2-1 in an elimination game, scoring twice in the sixth inning to come from behind for the win.
Baylor comes into the Hempstead Regional with a record of 45-13 on the season. The Bears won the Big 12 regular season title with a 14-3 mark in conference play, but were upset in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament and claimed an at-large bid to the field. Senior Ashley Monceaux leads a high-powered Baylor offense with a .399 batting average, 16 home runs and 60 RBI on the year. Sophomore Brette Reagan has also supplied power with 10 homers and 43 RBI, to go along with a .359 average. The Bears love to run, as they have seven different players with 10 or more stolen bases, including 32 from freshman Tiffany Wesley and 26 from twin sister Nicole Wesley. Kirsten Shortridge (16-4, 2.02 ERA) and Lisa Ferguson (21-7, 2.06 ERA) handle most of the pitching duties.
Harvard captured the Ivy League championship and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, and comes to Hempstead with a 31-13 mark on the season. Freshman Lauren Murphy has had a monster rookie season for the Crimson, leading the team in batting average (.359), home runs (18) and RBI (47). Senior shortstop Lauren Brown has been a catalyst at the top of the batting order with a .352 batting average and 39 runs scored, and has also hit six home runs. Junior Shelly Madick has compiled a 16-4 record and 1.45 earned run average in the circle this season, while Amanda Watkins has had a solid 7-1 season with a 2.54 ERA as the Crimson's #2 starter.
Albany earned its second straight NCAA Tournament appearance by winning the America East Tournament as the fourth seed. The Great Danes are led offensively by senior infielder Kelly Ogden, who has batted .357 with 10 homers and 43 RBI on the season. Freshman Michelle Connors has chipped in with a .338 batting average, eight homers and 29 RBI, while junior outfielder Amber Maisonet is hitting .385 with 38 runs scored and 21 stolen bases. Senior Casey Halloran gives the Great Danes an experienced hurler in the pitching circle, entering the NCAA Tournament with an 18-9 record and a 2.15 earned run average. Freshman Leah McIntosh has tallied a 10-5 record and a 2.96 ERA in her rookie campaign.
The two winners on Friday will meet in the first game on Saturday at 10 a.m., while the two losers will square off in an elimination game at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. The championship round is scheduled for Sunday at 12 noon.
