By Mike Rudin – Sports Editor
The Hofstra Pride softball squad returned to their home field on Tuesday against the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and crushed their opponent, 8-0, in five innings via mercy rule.
Morgan Lashley threw five scoreless innings for the complete-game shutout win. Lashley notched her seventh shutout of the season and surrendered two hits while striking out five on the day. She improved to 13-1 and currently has a 2.10 ERA.
Hofstra extends their winning streak to five games in a row and improved their record to 14 games over .500 at 23-9-1.
Hofstra’s starting pitcher, Lashley, got the game started with a 1-2-3 inning and she mirrored that success consistently throughout the game.
The Pride offense broke open the scoreless streak in the bottom of the second, thanks to freshman Megan Patierno’s Sacrifice Fly that drove in Brielle Pietrafesa and put the Pride out in front 1-0.
LIU tried to answer back with two hits scattered in the top of the third that put the Blackbirds in position to score.
This was the only moment Lashley hit a rough patch while pitching but she recomposed herself to shut down LIU and got out of the inning unscathed.
Hofstra’s offense in the bottom of the third unloaded with a six-run rally. An RBI base hit by Caryn Bailey, a two-run double by Kim Smith, and an RBI single by Lacey Clark respectively pushed Hofstra’s lead to a five-run margin over LIU.
Brielle Pietrafesa capped off the rally with a two-run homer in left field that put the Pride up by seven and marked the fourth consecutive hit with runners in scoring position within the inning.
Hofstra was on pace to mercy LIU as quickly as possible as the team needed to lead by at least eight runs over five innings at minimum.
In the bottom of the fourth, Megan Patierno stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and pulled off an RBI walk to score the eighth Pride run of the game.
Hofstra failed to score again but the extra run was enough to setup Lashley to possibly end the game in the top of the fifth, as long as she did not give up a run.
But Lashley did not disappoint, capitalizing on a foul out and two strikeouts to end the game on a two-hit performance.
Kim Smith, Caryn Bailey and Lacey Clark were the only Pride players to have multi-hit performances at the plate, each went 2-for-3. Smith scored two runs as well as drove in two. Clark and Bailey each scored once run and drove in one.