By Jeffrey Werner - STAFF WRITER The Pride came into Sunday’s matchup looking for the sweep against the Phoenix of Elon University. Unfortunately, the Phoenix wouldn’t allow the Pride to do so, exploding offensively in the seventh inning to hand the Pride a 5-2 loss.
Prior to the game, the Pride and Hofstra Administration honored former softball coach Bill Edwards with a banner ceremony commemorating his accomplishments as coach. He led Hofstra to 15 NCAA tournament appearances and achieved over 900 wins, placing him 21st on the all-time wins list in NCAA Division I softball. Secretly, they had one more surprise for Coach Edwards. In addition to the banner ceremony, the Pride and Hofstra Administration renamed the Softball Stadium to Bill Edwards Stadium.
With the festivities out of the way, Taylor Pirone took the mound for the Pride. She struggled early on, as the Phoenix scored two runs in the first inning. Alaina Hall hit the ball up the middle, driving in her teammate Hannah Olson to give the Phoenix a 1-0 while Hall advanced to second. Hall then scored the second run when Aly Quintana singled to left field.
Hofstra kept the game close in the bottom of the first; Chloe Fitzgerald was at third with no outs as third baseman Kim Smith flied the ball to center field, allowing Fitzgerald to tag up and score on the sacrifice fly and bring the lead to within one run. Neither team would be able to score a run until the sixth inning when catcher Erin Trippi smashed the ball over the right field fence for her second home run of the season, tying the game at two.
All the Pride needed to do in the top of the seventh was hold the Phoenix off the board so they could come to bat in the bottom of the seventh and potentially win the game. Elon had other plans. With Olson at second and Hall at first, Kara Shutt drove the ball into left field to drive Olson in and Hall advance to third. Coach Anderson, fearing Pirone would give up more runs, decided to relieve her with Morgan Lashley in hopes of keeping Elon to within one. This decision proved to be ineffective, as Lashley gave up two more runs to give the Phoenix a 5-2 victory.
Up next for the Pride is a doubleheader against Syracuse University on Tuesday. The first game will start at 2:00 p.m. at Bill Edwards Stadium.