Sarah Cornell shows that she is human, as Hofstra falls in the final against the Longwood University Lancers in Virginia, 2-0. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning when Longwood scored on a two-run homerun by Krista Kelly. That’s all the Lancers would need, as the Pride would fail to the score for the rest of the contest. The Pride couldn’t even get anybody into scoring position, with just two runners getting into scoring position throughout the entire game. The first one came in the second inning, when junior Brittany Allocca led off with a single.
Senior Lacey Clark advanced her to second on a sacrifice bunt, but the Longwood then got two quick outs. The second chance was in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Megan Patierno singled to right field to start the inning. Longwood then got two outs, before walking the next one to put runners on first and second. However they got the third out to seal the win.
Hofstra could not manage to generate any type of offense against Longwood pitcher Sydney Gay – who logged seven scoreless innings, letting up just two hits and striking out seven. With the win she improved to 6-4, lowering her earned run average (ERA) to 1.67.
Freshman sensation Cornell pitched well, however the Pride offense could not help her out. She pitched five innings, allowing two runs, four hits, three walks and six strikeouts. That was her first blemish on the season, falling to 6-1 with a 2.33 ERA.
Hofstra only got two hits on the afternoon, one coming from Patierno and the other from Allocca. Patierno raised her average to .310 on the season, while Allocca is continuing to struggle, hitting just over .200.
The loss snapped Hofstra’s four-game winning streak, with the Pride falling to 7-6 on the year. Longwood improves to 6-10.
Hofstra will look to get back on track, when the Pride heads to the Oregon Duck Invitational next weekend. The Pride will open tournament play against the University of the Pacific on Friday, March 10, at 1 p.m.