LYNCHBURG, Va. – The Hofstra University softball team closed out action at the Liberty Spring Classic on Sunday afternoon and dropped a matchup against the East Carolina Pirates, 5-1 at Kamphius Field at Liberty Softball Stadium.
 
The Pride scattered just three hits on the day, including an RBI double by Lindsey Hay in the second.
 
ECU led off the contest with a base hit before getting on the scoreboard with an RBI double. The Pirates scored once more in the first before Hofstra cut the ECU advantage in half with Hay's RBI single in the bottom of the second. Later in the inning, freshman Alia Catanzarita recorded her first career hit but the inning ended with a play at the plate.
 
The lead increased to 4-1 for East Carolina in the fourth as the Pirates added two runs on three hits. Ruberti reached base with a bunt single in the bottom half of the inning but the Pirates escaped the inning with two-straight outs.
 
After the Pirates added one more insurance run in the sixth, Hofstra rallied in the seventh and put runners on second and third, but a foul out to right field ended the spurt as Hofstra fell to the Pirates.
 
Madison Burns (1-6) suffered the loss and Nikki Mullin pitched 6.0 innings in relief, striking out two. Erin Poepping (3-3) earned the win for East Carolina. Hofstra dropped to 2-11 overall and East Carolina improved to 11-7.
 
Hofstra will return to action next weekend, March 6-8 for the Mason Invitational in Fairfax, Va. The Pride will play four opponents including Canisius, Buffalo, Cornell and George Mason. The first game of the invitational is on Friday, March 6 at 3:15 p..m.
 
NOTES:
-Alexis Goeke led Hofstra with a .308 batting average during the weekend
-Jordan Pietrzykoski tallied a team-high five hits this weekend and recorded her first career home run against Yale on Saturday
-Nikki Mullin struck out a team-high seven batters across three appearances