Hempstead, NY – The Hofstra softball team earned a win in game one, but dropped the nightcap to UNCW to earn a split with the Seahawks on Friday afternoon at Bill Edwards Stadium.
Hofstra moved to 14-21 on the season following today's action and 7-3 in the Colonial Athletic Association, good for second place in the League standings heading into Saturday.
Reining CAA Player of the Week
Meghan Giordano continued with her hot bat as she went 3-for-5 on the day with a two-run home run in game one.
Chelsea Manto,
Amanda Maffucci, and
Aliya Catanzarita all collected a pair of hits while Manto drove in two and went 2-for-2 on stolen base attempts and Maffucci scored a team-high two runs for the Pride.
Game 1: Hofstra 3, UNCW 2
Two runs came around for the visitors in the top of the first inning on a bunt single, giving the Seahawks a quick advantage after the first top-half of the inning. Giordano had the emphatic answer in the bottom half of the inning as she blasted her fourth home run of the season well over the left field wall, leveling the contest at two runs apiece.
Things slowed down for a while until the bottom of the fifth when Maffucci reached on a fielding error,
Kayla Wilson walked, and
Devyn Losco moved runners over with a sacrifice bunt before
Chelsea Manto plated the eventual game-winning run with a sacrifice fly to left field. Hofstra scattered singles in four out of its first five at bats in the sixth, but nothing came across as the score stayed at 3-2.
Nikki Mullin retired the side in order in the top of the seventh to earn her second win of the season.
Mullin (2-4) fired six strikeouts in her first complete-game performance of the season, allowed just four hits, and surrendered two walks.
Game 2: UNCW 6, Hofstra 2
Hofstra got on the board first in the nightcap as the Pride scored two runs on three hits in the bottom of the second stanza. After Catanzarita and Maffucci scattered back-to-back singles and Wilson reached on a fielding error on a sacrifice bunt, Catanzarita trotted home on a wild pitch before Manto drove in Maffucci to put the Pride up by two.
UNCW responded with three runs, including one unearned to gain a one-run advantage, 3-2 in the top of the third. Giordano singled for Hofstra in the third, but the Pride went hitless the remainder of the contest while UNCW plated three more runs in the top of the sixth.
Annabella Pisapia (1-2) took the loss after going 2.2 innings on the rubber, striking out two and walking two.
Julia Apsel pitched 3.1 innings in relief and struck out two batters as well.
Up Next:
Hofstra looks to clinch its fourth consecutive CAA series tomorrow in the rubber match against UNCW. First pitch at Bill Edwards Stadium is at 12 p.m.
Notes:
-Losco caught two runners stealing
-Manto has reached base successfully in a team-longest 17 games
-Manto jumped into the Hofstra career record books and now has 37 stolen bases for her career, tying with Chloe Fitzgerald who had 37 from 2013-16. She needs three more to pass heather Brosseau who had 39 from 2000-03.
-Giordano recorded her fourth multi-RBI game of the season
