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Hofstra University Athletics

Jess Hirschbuhl

HOFSTRA FALLS TO NO. 3 ARIZONA IN WINNER'S BRACKET AT NCAA REGIONALS

5/22/2010 11:00:00 PM

Tucson, Ariz. - Brittany Lastrapes hit a two-run homer in the third inning and Kenzie Fowler threw a one-hit shutout as No. 3 Arizona captured a 6-0 win over Hofstra in a winner's bracket game of the NCAA Softball Regionals on Saturday afternoon at Hillenbrand Stadium.   

The loss drops Hofstra's record to 44-11 on the season and puts the Pride in an elimination game later today at 10 p.m. (Eastern time) against the winner of the Oklahoma State-Cornell game taking place this afternoon. Arizona improves to 45-11 and advances to the regional finals tomorrow.

Sophomore pitcher Erin Wade (Taunton, Mass.) started and did not allow a hit in the first two innings, before Arizona used some effective small ball (and the homer from Lastrapes) to score four times in the third. She took the loss to fall to 18-5 on the year, while seeing her personal 12-game winning streak come to an end. She had not lost a game since a March 30 defeat to Maryland.

Senior center fielder Kris Root (Waynesboro, Pa.) was also 0-for-3 at the plate, ending a 19-game hitting streak, which was the second longest in school history.

Arizona, which was playing as the visiting team and batted first, went down in order in the top of the first, as Wade earned two pop-ups and a grounder to third, but Wildcat freshman Kenzie Fowler matched her with a 1-2-3 inning on two strikeouts and a grounder to second.

Brigette Del Ponte coaxed a one-out walk in the second for Arizona, and Lini Koria and Kristen Arriola followed with consecutive hard liners to third base, but Hofstra junior Sara Michalowski (Philadelphia, Pa.) made two straight impressive defensive plays to scoop up both shots on short hops and get the Pride out of the inning.

Freshman right fielder Tessa Ziemba (Wilmington, Del.) got the first hit of the game for either team when she went the other way for a single into left-center with one out in the bottom of the second.  Arizona shortstop K'lee Arredondo then robbed sophomore second baseman Jess Hirschbuhl (Jamison, Pa.) with a diving play up the middle, before crawling to second base to get the force-out.

Arizona right fielder Karissa Buchanan picked up Arizona's first hit with one out in the third inning as she slapped a single up the middle. Lastrapes, who entered the game 7-for-8 against Hofstra in her career (including 4-for-4 in the 2008 NCAA regionals), followed with an opposite-field homer that just barely cleared the wall in left field with the wind blowing out. Lauren Schutzler and Arredondo then followed with back-to-back bunt singles, and Stacie Chambers flared a single into center field off the end of her bat to load the bases.

Wade just missed inside on a 3-2 pitch to Del Ponte to force home a third run on a walk, one pitch after a foul tip popped out of the mitt of catcher Laura Valentino (Smithtown, N.Y.). An error allowed a fourth run to score, as junior shortstop Trisha Dreslinski (Kingsville, Ohio) momentarily bobbled a ball in the 5-6 hole and flipped it to third base, but the umpires ruled that Chambers beat the throw with her slide.

In the fourth, Lastrapes chopped a ball in front of the plate with one out that bounced high in the air and tipped off the glove of leaping Hofstra senior first baseman Michele DePasquale (Waterford, N.J.) at first base for a single. However, Valentino promptly threw Lastrapes out stealing for the second out of the inning.  

Hofstra had its best chance in the bottom of the fourth by loading the bases with one out. DePasquale led off with a walk, and Arrendondo mis-handled a Michalowski grounder to put runners on first and second and nobody out. Ziemba then drove a ball into deep center field, but Schutzler went back and camped under it one step in front of the warning track for the first out.

Hirschbuhl was then hit in the leg with a Fowler to load the bases, and freshman left fielder Becca Bigler (Bainbridge, Pa.) was hit on the wrist on a check swing, but the umpired ruled that she didn't try to get out of the way and kept her in the batter's box. Fowler then bounced back to strike her out, and then struck out Dreslinski to leave the bases loaded.      

Chambers led off the fifth inning with a solo homer off of relief pitcher Olivia Galati (West Babylon, N.Y.) to push the lead to 5-0.  In the sixth, the Wildcats added another insurance run with more small ball. Buchanan slapped a single off Galati's glove, and Schutzler squibbed an infield single in front of home plate. Arredondo lined a single back up the middle to load the bases, and Chambers drew a walk, as Galati nibbled the outside corner on a 3-2 pitch but missed just low, to bring home her second RBI of the day.  

Hofstra had some quality at-bats in the sixth and seventh, but had nothing to show for it. DePasquale led off with a line drive right at Lastrapes in left, and Ziemba had her third strong at-bat of the day, scorching a line drive in the 5-6 hole, but Del Ponte laid out with a diving catch for the third out. Hirschbuhl just missed a solo homer in the seventh, as she pulled a ball down the left field line that curved barely in front of the foul pole. Valentino also got way out in front of a pitch that she pulled out of the stadium.

Hofstra has now lost four times to Arizona in the last three years, and is still looking for its first run against the Wildcats. The Pride has come close several times, including a bases-loaded line drive from DePasquale in the 2008 regionals that was caught off the grasstops by a diving catch by Lastrapes, as well as Hirschbuhl's near homer and Bigler's near hit-by-pitch on Saturday.
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