Hempstead, N.Y. – Former Hofstra softball standout Olivia Galati will be looking to add more postseason highlights to her career starting on Thursday at 8 p.m. when her fourth-seeded New York/New Jersey Comets face the third-seeded Akron Racers in the first game of the National Pro Fastpitch Championship Series. All postseason games will be held at the Ballpark at Rosemont in Illinois.
Galati, a two-time All-America selection for the Pride, is no stranger to the biggest stage after leading Hofstra to three Colonial Athletic Association championships and three NCAA Tournament berths in her record-setting career from 2010-13. The West Babylon, N.Y. native, who took Hofstra to its first-ever NCAA Super Regionals appearance in 2012, will now be going for a professional title.
The format for the four-team playoff features the Comets and Racers in an elimination game on Thursday. The winner of that contest will then play the second-seeded USSSA Pride in a winner-take-all contest on Friday at 6:30 p.m. The winner advances to the best-of-three championship series against the Chicago Bandits with Game 1 slated for Friday at 9:30 p.m. and Game 2 on Saturday at 5 p.m. If necessary, the third and decisive game will follow Game 2.
Both games on Thursday and Friday will be available through a live stream on the NPF website (www.profastpitch.com). ESPN 2 will air Saturday's game and ESPN 3 will carry the “if necessary”contest.
Galati enters the playoffs in the top-10 in the NPF in ERA (3.79) and strikeouts (37). She leads the Comets in wins with a 6-10 record, accounting for 60 percent of her team's victory total as New York/New Jersey was 10-38 during the regular season.
As a senior Galati bested her own program record for single season wins (previously 34) by going 40-12 with a 1.42 ERA in 2013. The right-hander led Division I in victories and shutouts with 22 while notching a .769 winning percentage with 395 strikeouts.
Galati, who walked just 31 batters in 56 total appearances encompassing 341 innings, allowed the fewest-walks-per-seven innings with 0.64. Her total shutouts were six more than the next-closest player in two-time USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Keilani Ricketts.
Besides setting program and CAA career records for wins, strikeouts, shutouts, innings pitched, starts and appearances, Galati was a model student-athlete who earned the NCAA postgraduate scholarship. She finished her career with a 129-34 record and 1,410 strikeouts. Galati registered 12 no-hitters and an NCAA record-tying five perfect games in her career for Hofstra, including the first perfect game in CAA Tournament history against James Madison.
