Hempstead, NY – The Hofstra softball team rallied from a one-run deficit to win 4-1 over visiting Monmouth Friday afternoon from Bill Edwards Stadium in the second-to-last game of the 2025 regular season.
 
With Friday's win over the Hawks, Hofstra clinches a spot in the CAA Championship for the fourth consecutive season.
 
Hofstra is now 19-26 overall and 14-12 in CAA play, while Monmouth drops to 11-41 overall and 7-19 against conference competition.
 
Monmouth claimed the day's first run in the second inning on an RBI single up the middle, but Hofstra utilized exceptional baserunning in the bottom of the third to take a 3-1 lead. After Lily Yepez legged out an infield single and reached third on a successful bunt by Chelsea Villar that saw her advance to second, Alanna Morse drove a hard grounder to the shortstop, and Yepez beat the tag at home for the tying run. Villar reached third safely on the throw from the catcher, and she took advantage of the ball squirting away from the third baseman before a misthrow allowed her to slide in safely, and Morse rounded the bases as the ball bounced away from the catcher, giving the Pride a two-run lead in the blink of an eye.
 
As Carley Ernst mowed through the Monmouth lineup, not allowing a runner past second from the third inning on, Hofstra tacked on an insurance run in the fifth inning with a double down the left field line by Tyler Douglas, scoring Dahlia Palacio from first to make it 4-1 Pride.
 
Mackenzie Fitzgerald laced two doubles against Monmouth, while Yepez went 2-3 with a pair of singles in Friday's contest. Ernst picked up her seventh win of the season with six strikeouts and four hits allowed in a complete game performance.
 
The series and season finale between the Pride and the Hawks is set for 12 p.m. on Saturday, May 3, from Bill Edwards Stadium. Prior to the first pitch, the Hofstra softball program will honor Anna Butler, Olivia Malinowski, Kellie Sandas, and Haley Venturini in a pregame Senior Day ceremony.
 
NOTES:
-Hofstra is now 7-3 all-time against Monmouth. The Pride have won three consecutive games over the Hawks.
-Doubles by Douglas and Fitzgerald gives Hofstra 72 on the season, putting the 2025 team ninth for the most doubles in a season in program history. The Pride needs two more to pass the 73 doubles hit by the 2016 team for eight-most.
-Today was Ernst's fifth game this season with at least five strikeouts.