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Hofstra University Athletics

Team Huddle

SB: Hofstra Opens CAA Tournament Play Wednesday

5/10/2011 9:10:00 PM

Hempstead, N.Y. - The top-seeded Hofstra Softball team will host the 2011 Colonial Athletic Association championship, opening play on Wednesday at 2 p.m. against fourth-seeded Delaware.

The second opening-round game on Wednesday will feature second-seeded Georgia State against third-seeded Towson at 5 p.m. The two opening-round winners will face each other at 12 noon on Thursday, followed by two elimination games at 2:30 and 5 p.m. The championship round will take place on Friday at 12 noon.

Hofstra (38-11) earned the top seed and the right to host by finishing the regular season 19-1 in CAA play, its best CAA mark since joining the league in 2002, eclipsing last year's 18-2 record. The regular season title did not get determined until the final weekend, when second place Georgia State visited with the chance to earn the top seed by taking two of three from the Pride. Hofstra, though, defended its home turf with a three-game sweep, finishing four games ahead of the Panthers (15-5) in the final standings.  

The Pride will be hosting the CAA Tournament as the top seed for the ninth time in the 10-year history of the conference. The only exception was in 2006, when Georgia State finished first by a half-game and hosted the tournament, which the Pride won. Hofstra has won eight of the first nine tournaments as well, falling short only in 2009, when James Madison earned the title, ending an NCAA-record streak of 11 straight conference championships for the Pride, dating back to the America East Conference. By finishing first this season, Hofstra has now won either a regular season or a postseason conference title for 20 years in a row, dating back to an East Coast Conference title in 1992.   

The three-game sweep over Georgia State last weekend also extended Hofstra's home winning streak to 28 games, the longest in the country (Texas A&M is second at 22). The Pride is 18-0 at home this year, and has not lost a home conference series since 1991 (a doubleheader sweep by Drexel). Hofstra has a 23-4 all-time record at home in the CAA Tournament, and is 103-11 at home against CAA teams, including the regular season.

Hofstra is led by sophomore pitcher Olivia Galati (West Babylon, N.Y.), who helped the Pride secure the top seed by throwing two shutouts in the same doubleheader on Friday against Georgia State, which the Pride won 4-0 and 2-0 (before capping off the weekend on Saturday with a 4-1 win). She also broke the Hofstra single-season school records for strikeouts in a season and wins in a season within five minutes of each other on Friday, and is currently tied for the national lead in shutouts (15) with Blaire Luna of Texas.

Overall for the season, Galati is 27-7 with 324 strikeouts and 31 walks, breaking the old school records of 26 wins and 319 strikeouts. She finished the regular season with a 14-1 record in CAA play, and is 22-1 in her career at home, with the only loss a 1-0 defeat to Fordham last year on a seventh inning solo homer. Last year, she threw a no-hitter in the CAA championship game against Georgia State, a 3-0 Hofstra victory, to earn CAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.

At the plate, senior first baseman Sara Michalowski (Philadelphia, Pa.) capped off a regular season which saw her hit 12 home runs in the last 20 games. She leads the Pride with 12 homers and 44 RBI, including 10 homers and 31 RBI in conference games, and is hitting .294 overall (and an even .400 against conference teams). Sophomore outfielder Tessa Ziemba (Wilmington, Del.) enters the CAA Tournament with a .331 average, eight homers and 41 RBI (.418, 5 HR, 22 RBI in conference).

Defensively, Hofstra ranks as the top team in the nation with a .984 team fielding percentage and only 21 errors in 48 games. The Pride committed only five errors in CAA play all year, including none in any of its nine road games. Senior Trisha Dreslinski (Kingsville, Ohio) has anchored the defense with only four errors while playing every inning at shortstop, while Michalowski has no errors at first base after converting to the position from third base, where she played the last two years.

The Pride took all three games from Delaware in the regular season at home on April 2-3, but they were all closely contested. Hofstra won 2-1 and 7-1 in the opening doubleheader (breaking open the nightcap late behind five RBI from Michalowski after trailing 1-0 going into the fifth) and then won 1-0 in the single game on Sunday on a Michalowski solo homer and a Galati shutout. In addition to its three-game sweep of Georgia State last weekend, Hofstra defeated Towson 7-2 and 2-0 in a rain-shortened two-game series.

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