Norman, Okla. – Hofstra defeated Bryant in the first game of the day, but Texas A&M scored three runs in the first inning of the second elimination game as the Pride fell, 7-0, to the Aggies in the second day of the NCAA Norman Regional on Saturday evening at Marita Hynes Field at the OU Softball Complex.
Hofstra ended its season 34-15 with a pair of losses to A&M in the double-elimination tournament. The Pride was making the 15th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history. A&M (37-21) advanced to play No. 7 overall seed and defending national champion Oklahoma on Sunday in the regional finals. OU defeated the Aggies, 9-8, on a seventh-inning comeback in the day's first game. A&M would have to defeat OU twice to advance to the Super Regionals while the Sooners need just one more win to make the next round.
Junior pitcher Taylor Pirone earned the win in Hofstra's 10-6 victory over the Bulldogs in the first elimination game and threw a complete-game immediately after versus the Aggies. But Pirone ended her first season with the Pride 17-8 as A&M counterpart Rachel Fox tossed a four-hit shutout to improve to 15-10.
Sophomore outfielder Chloe Fitzgerald recorded two hits in each game and finished 4-fo-6 with two runs scored. Fitzgerald compiled half of Hofstra's hits against A&M.
April Ryan hit a two-run triple to key a four-hit top of the first as the Aggies raced to a 3-0 lead. Emily Albus, who entered with a .425 batting average, hit a leadoff single. A&M hit back-to-back singles to load the bases, though Pirone tried to limit the damage by holding Jenna Stark to a sacrifice fly. Ryan followed with a sinking liner to center. Senior centerfielder Rachael Senatore dove for the ball but couldn't come up with the catch as it rolled to the 225-foot centerfield wall for a triple that plated two more. Ryan finished a home run shy of the cycle with three RBIs.
Amber Garza reached on an error and pinch-runner Allison Garrett eventually scored on a play in which junior catcher Erin Trippi threw out fellow pinch-runner Alex Masek at second. Garrett raced home on the throw down to second as the Aggies traded an out for a run to go up 4-0 in the third.
The Pride mounted a fourth-inning rally when sophomore Caryn Bailey singled to center and sophomore Kim Smith reached on an error. Fox escaped trouble with an inning-ending double play in the only frame in which Hofstra saw multiple runners reach base. A&M added three unearned runs in the seventh.
A team-wide offensive outburst powered the win over Bryant. Rocha hit her first home run in more than two years and Senatore drove in two runs and scored a run to lift Hofstra to a 10-6 elimination-game win over Bryant in the Pride's first matchup of the afternoon. The run total was the most for the Pride in a NCAA Tournament game since a 12-1 win over Mississippi Valley State in the 2005 regional at Alabama.
Hofstra has now won at least one game in its last 12 NCAA regional appearances and has won at least one game in every tournament trip since 1999.
Pirone made a third-inning relief appearance and held the Bulldogs scoreless through 4 1/3 innings-in picking up the win and improving to 17-7. Bryant, which was the NEC champion, ended its season 32-22. Pirone struck out one and threw 32 of her 41 pitches for strikes.
Seven Hofstra starters collected base hits in a six-run opening inning highlighted by Rocha's first home run of the season. Smith lined a two-run double and Rocha's three-home shot to left-center erased a 2-0 deficit to stake junior starter Morgan Lashley to a 6-2 edge.
Bryant scored the first two runs when Kendall Corder drew a leadoff walk and Aubrey Mable hit a home run to the left-field bleachers. Mable's ninth home run is second on the Bulldogs.
Hofstra started the first with three consecutive hits for a second straight game. The Pride followed suit from its opening against A&M on Friday but this time mounted a sustained rally when Senatore doubled and scored on sophomore Maggie Hawkins' hard-hit RBI opposite field single to the right side.
Trippi, who had two hits in the regionals' opening game, singled and Bailey also singled to load the bases for the Pride. Smith's two run single to center. Rocha then continued her career propensity for clutch home runs by taking Bryant starter Elle Madsen's offering over the left-center wall. It was Rocha's third career home run and first in 103 games, dating to the 2012 Colonial Athletic Association Tournament in which her long ball was the difference in a 1-0 win over Georgia State on May 11.
Bryant turned the contest into a slugfest early on by responding with a three-run second. Liana O'Gata, Corder and Madeline Velasquez each registered RBI hits. O'Gata picked up her second RBI of the afternoon in the third with her single to right allowed Lauren Guy to score her second run and knot the score at 6. That chased Lashley, who took the no-decision. Pirone came in and the inning ended on a caught stealing.
Madsen retired eight in a row at one point after Hofstra registered those seven hits through the first eight batters. But Senatore re-established Hofstra's lead with a two-run single against a drawn-in infield for an 8-6 lead in the fourth. Senior shortstop Becca Bigler drove Madsen's pitch count up with a 15-pitch at-bat against Madsen, including nine foul balls with two strikes before popping out to end the fourth. Madsen fell to 25-11.
Pirone did not allow a runner past first base after the fifth inning to secure the win. The game also had a family connection. Senatore and Bryant outfielder Kristen Carter (who went 2-for-3) are first cousins. Hofstra defeated the Bulldogs in the first-ever matchup between the programs in the all-time series.
