Hempstead, N.Y. – Senior Becca Bigler ensured her birthday was a memorable one with a grand slam and five total RBIs on the day to support fellow senior Olivia Galati's back-to-back complete-game victories as Hofstra swept Delaware, 7-1, and 3-0, in a Colonial Athletic Association doubleheader on Saturday at Hofstra Softball Stadium.
Bigler's ninth home run of the season sparked a five-run fourth inning in the first game and a sacrifice fly in the second game helped Hofstra extend its winning streak to eight in a row. Galati allowed just three total hits in 14 innings, posting 18 strikeouts without walking a single batter to help Hofstra improve to 26-10 and 9-1 in CAA play. Delaware, which entered the day tied for first place, fell to 30-10 and 9-2.
Galati improved to 23-9 and faced the minimum number of batters in Game 2. The only Delaware base-runner in the back-end was pinch-hitter Amanda Stacevicz's double that fell in to shallow center to start the sixth.
Hofstra senior Tessa Ziemba made a diving attempt on the ball that came up short to start the inning. Before that, Galati had retired 15 in a row in a bid for her fourth career perfect game and the second in a little more than a week after she posted a six-inning perfecto at Drexel last Sunday.
With one out and Hofstra nursing a 3-0 lead, sophomore catcher Erin Trippi caught Stacevicz stealing third. Galati retired the next four batters to lower her ERA to 1.68 on the season.
Hofstra capitalzed on a Delaware error to plate all three of the game's run in the fourth inning. Shelby Jones dropped Trippi's routine fly ball to start the inning. Freshman Alyssa Cuzzola entered as a pinch-runner and Ziemba's single put runners on the corners. Senior Jess Hirschbuhl lined a RBI single to right to open the scoring and Bigler's sacrifice fly to left brought home Ziemba.
All three runs charged to Delaware starter Chenxi Jiao (11-4) were unearned. Jiao allowed seven hits in four innings.
Freshman Caryn Bailey, who is leading the team in hitting with a .398 average, batted ninth in the game. Giving the bottom of the order a potent threat paid off when the right fielder smashed a double to left-center for a 3-0 edge.
Galati made the lead stand up, building on a dominant first game in which she allowed just two hits and struck out 12. Hofstra staked the West Babylon, N.Y. native to a 5-0 lead in the fourth when Hofstra batted around. Trippi ignited the rally with a leadoff double off Delaware starter Amanda Stacevicz and Ziemba and Hirschbuhl walked. That brought up Bigler, who turned on an offering for a long fly ball to the picnic area in left-centerfield. Bigler now enters Sunday with 28 RBIs after the offensive explosion on her birthday.
Hofstra tacked on another run in the inning when Galati hit a RBI single up the middle, meaning she drove in as many runs as she allowed in the circle. Stacevicz fell to 5-2.
With her Game 1 strikeout total, Galati had whiffed double-digit batters in four consecutive starts. Galati won the NFCA National Division I Co-Player of the Week honors as well as the National Player of the Week from the ASA and the CAA Pitcher of the Week.
Hofstra, which improved to 57-16 all-time against the Blue Hens. The Pride will look for the three-game series sweep on Sunday at noon.
