Hempstead, NY - The Hofstra softball team (38-13) will begin
NCAA Tournament play when it travels to Los Angeles to play No. 12 seed UCLA
(36-18) in the opening round of regionals, which begins Friday. Florida State
(46-14) will face San Diego State (30-22) in the other opening round game of
the double elimination regional.
Hofstra will face the Bruins at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, following the San Diego State-Florida State matchup that is set to start at 6 p.m.
Hofstra already faced the 12-time national champion Bruins
earlier this season, with UCLA posting a 9-4 victory in the Citrus Classic.
Juniors Rachael Senatore and Olivia Galati had RBIs in that game for Hofstra.
The Pride will be making its 13th NCAA Tournament appearance,
including its eighth in the last 10 years. Hofstra has won at least one game in
each of its last nine appearances, while making its deepest run in 2004, when
it came one win shy of the Women's College World Series before falling to
Stanford in the regional finals (the NCAA Softball Tournament went to the Super
Regional format in 2005).
Hofstra secured a spot in the 2012 NCAA
Tournament after winning the Colonial Athletic Association championship
tournament on its home field, defeating Georgia State in a run-rule 9-1 victory
to lock up the team's ninth CAA title in 11 years.
Junior pitcher/designated player Olivia Galati (West Babylon, N.Y.) threw a
complete-game one hitter and hit a three-run home run in earning the
tournament's Most Outstanding Player award for the second time in her career.
Junior Becca Bigler hit two home runs in the contest and senior third baseman
Krista Thorn also went deep as part of a four home-run Hofstra barrage to erase
a 1-0 deficit and earn the league's automatic berth to the regionals.
Galati (30-5) has already set the school record for wins in a
single season and has won 28 straight starts (also a Hofstra record) to become
the first 30-game winner in the history of a program that started in 1951.
The Pride won both the CAA regular season and postseason
championships this season, the 21st straight year that it has won a conference
title of some kind (either regular season or tournament).
Hofstra will enter the NCAA
Regionals with a 17-game winning streak. The team went 19-0 officially in CAA
play with 22 wins against zero defeats versus league teams when factoring in
the three CAA Tournament victories. That marked the first time
Hofstra has finished a regular season and tournament slate undefeated against
league teams (the 1996 and 1997 squads did it in the regular season before
falling in the conference tournament).
