Harrisonburg, Va. – Sophomore outfielder Caryn Bailey drilled two home runs and Hofstra put the potential tying run on base in the seventh, but the Pride couldn't complete its comeback bid in a 5-4 elimination-game loss to Towson at the Colonial Athletic Association Championship on Thursday evening at Veterans Memorial Park on James Madison's campus.
The third-seeded Pride fell to top-seeded JMU, 8-0, earlier in the day and saw its quest for a third consecutive CAA title fall short in dropping to 33-13 overall. Fourth-seeded Towson (29-24) will now face top seed and host JMU in the CAA Championship Game on Friday at noon, followed by a winner-take-all contest at 2:30 p.m. if the Tigers win.
Hofstra failed to advance to the championship round for just the second time in the 13 seasons the CAA has sponsored a tournament. The JMU-Towson matchup will be a rematch of the 2009 title game, which was the only other time Hofstra did not make it to the final day.
The Pride had won 10 CAA championships, including back-to-back crowns entering this season. Coming into 2014, Hofstra had lost just seven total CAA Tournament games with all of those defeats coming by two runs or less.
Down 5-3, Hofstra put the tying run on base in the seventh when sophomore Maggie Hawkins hit a leadoff single and senior shortstop Becca Bigler hit a one-out single of Towson's Missy McCormick. A force play at third marked the second out of the inning, though Hofstra nearly tied it in the last at-bat.
Bailey looped a fly ball near the shallow rightfield line that second baseman Nicole Delgado attempted to retrieve. Delgado overran the ball, which landed fair and scored Bigler. Sophomore Kim Smith, who reached on the previous fielder's choice, was caught in a rundown between third and home and was tagged out by Delanie Dunham to end the contest.
Bailey hit solo home runs in both the fourth and sixth innings. It marked her first two career CAA Tournament home runs and her second career two-homer game (with the first coming on April 14, 2013 versus Delaware in her freshman campaign).
Senior Rachael Senatore's unearned run in the first and Bailey's power comprised Hofstra's offensive output before the last inning. McCormick tossed 138 pitches to move the Tigers past second-seeded College of Charleston and immediately after took the circle again and logged 101 pitches in the complete-game victory over the Pride. McCormick, who totaled 239 pitches in less than five hours, gave up eight hits in improving to 17-10.
Towson sent 10 batters to the plate in a first inning that featured two Hofstra errors and a rare 9-2 force out at the plate. Senatore gave the Pride an early 1-0 lead by reaching on a two-base error and scoring eventually on McCormick's wild pitch.
But the Tigers struck for four runs in the first on four hits. Olivia Yarbrough drew a leadoff walk, advanced on Hailey Balk's single and scored on Maureen Hepner's line-drive single to third base. Following a lineout, Dunham drove home Balk on a RBI single to the shallow left-center gap. Back-to-back fielding errors led to another run, and Towson could have struck for more if not for a strange play. Courtney Johnson's end-of-the-bat hit landed in shallow right, but Dunham waited on third base for a potential tag up.
When the ball dropped, Bailey threw home and got the force. That cost Towson one run and possibly more as ninth-hitter Nicole Delgado drove home Holiday Cahill with a run-scoring single up the middle to put Towson ahead, 4-1.
Junior pitcher Taylor Pirone (16-6) was lifted in favor of fellow junior Morgan Lashley to start the second inning. Lashley tossed a scoreless second before Jessica South lifted a solo home run over the CAA sign in left. Her fifth home run extended Towson's lead to 5-1.
Bailey's opposite-field blast to left-center was her fifth of the season and her fourth home run of the season put Hofstra within 5-2 in the fourth. She then went deep on a 1-1 offering to center in the sixth to bring Hofstra within a pair of runs.
Lashley allowed just one run in five innings of relief to give Hofstra a chance to comeback. The right-hander struck out nine and did not allow a walk to facilitate the come-from-behind bid.
The matchup marked the first meeting of the season between the Pride and Tigers after a scheduled three-game series was rained out in March in Maryland.
The NCAA Tournament field will be announced Sunday at 10 p.m.
