Hempstead, NY – The Hofstra softball team was in complete control in Sunday's series finale against UNCW, pulling ahead in the first inning and never looking back in a 9-1 win in six innings over the Seahawks.
 
The win puts Hofstra at 14-22 overall and 10-8 in the CAA as the regular season winds down, while UNCW drops to 23-17 overall and 9-9 in league play.
 
Chelsea Villar blasted a lead-off home run to left for the opening run, before a four-run third inning broke the game open. With runners on first and second after a 10-pitch walk to Lily Yepez and a long single by Villar, Anna Butler stepped up and drilled a 1-2 pitch to left center to clear the bases and put the hosts ahead by three. Later in the inning, with Mackenzie Fitzgerald on third and Alanna Morse on first, Dahlia Palacio scored the two with her 16th double of the season to make it 5-0 to the Pride.
 
UNCW got on the board in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Allison Corbin to make it a four-run difference, but Hofstra kept the Seahawks scoreless and limited the guests to just two baserunners for the remainder of the game. Hofstra concluded the game with a three-run sixth inning to hit the run rule. After Olivia Malinowski drew a lead-off walk, Nicole Cancel launched a double over the shortstop and into the gap in left center, scoring Malinowski all the way from first to make it 6-1 Hofstra. Cancel made it 7-1 when she took advantage of a throwing error on an infield single by Yepez and scored from first. After Villar was intentionally walked, Butler ended the game with her second two-run double of the afternoon.
 
Villar went 3-3 on the day with a home run and she drew one of four Hofstra walks in the win, while Butler led the team with four RBIs on a pair of doubles, and Palacio drove in two runs on a double. Emma Falen picked up her ninth win of the season, recording four strikeouts in six innings from the circle.
 
Hofstra's homestand continues with a three-game CAA series against Charleston, beginning on Friday, April 18, at 5 p.m.
 
NOTES:
-Palacio is now tied with Brielle Pietrafesa (16, 2018), Ashley Lane (16, 2007), Tara Ulrich (16, 2006), and Jen Smith (16, 1997) for the sixth-most doubles in a season in Hofstra softball history. She is one shy of tying and two from passing Caryn Bailey (17, 2013) and Robyn Trezise (17, 1995) for fourth-most in a season in program history.
-Hofstra improves to 52-9 all-time against UNCW.
-This was Villar's first three-hit game of the season, and it ties her single-game high set against Stony Brook on April 14, 2024.
-Palacio has extended her hitting streak to 10 consecutive games, and Gemma D'Orazio has reached base safely in 10 straight games with a hit against the Seahawks.