Heartbreak in Hempstead: Hofstra Defeats Softball in Extra Innings

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.—It was drama worthy of the postseason stage.

And when the curtains closed, when Pam Dreslinski’s high-arching fly ball stayed fair and landed far beyond the left-field fence, Harvard dropped its opening game of the NCAA Tournament, 3-2, to Hofstra on Friday in nine innings.

The result sent the Crimson into the losers’ bracket of the Hempstead Regional in its first NCAA appearance since 2000.

“I’m proud of how we played,” Harvard coach Jenny Allard said. “We came out, we battled, we wanted it, and we fought hard. And it was a great game—it was exciting for fans.”

Two innings earlier, Harvard seemed poised to grab the upset win after seizing the lead in dramatic fashion in the top half of the seventh. But Melissa Hodge blasted a two-out, full-count home run off junior ace Shelly Madick to send the contest into extra innings and reawaken the soggy crowd of 209 at the Hofstra Softball Stadium on Long Island.

“Hodge’s home run was probably one of the clutchest home runs I have ever seen, and I’ve been around a long time,” Pride skipper Bill Edwards said, adding, “We like to make it exciting.”

The trio of wind-aided longballs—No. 3 hitter Carolann Lubach gave Hofstra a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on a line-drive homer—ultimately resolved a classic pitcher’s duel between Madick and Pride ace Kayleigh Lotti in the home team’s favor.

“I knew they were a good hitting team,” Madick said. “If you miss a pitch here and there, they’re going to put it out.”

Both award-winning hurlers went the distance. Madick, the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, endured a hard line drive that drilled her left leg in the fourth to last 8 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and a walk while striking out five. Lotti, who captured the same honor in the Colonial Athletic Association, improved to 23-4 on the year with a nine-inning, five-hit, eight-walk, 11-strikeout performance, allowing only two unearned runs.

Lotti held the Crimson scoreless through six innings despite putting a runner on base in every frame and eight total, including two hits and a walk by senior shortstop Lauren Brown and two intentional passes issued to freshman slugger Lauren Murphy.

“We were frustrated we didn’t execute early in the game,” Allard said. “[Lotti] had put some runners on base with walks, we had gotten some hits. We weren’t moving our runners with bunts, and we weren’t getting a big hit. We felt we could have scored earlier if we had gotten our bunts down.”

Freshman Stephanie Krysiak started the rally in the seventh by flaring an opposite-field double to left. Lotti rebounded to fan Brown, but walked senior captain Julia Kidder to put the go-ahead run aboard. Murphy came to the plate with the chance to deliver the decisive blow, but went down on three straight fastballs. However, freshman Melissa Schellberg earned a five-pitch walk to load the bases for fellow rookie Jennifer Francis with two outs. After working a full count, Francis lined a one-hopper to second baseman Laura Jaxheimer, who booted the grounder, sending Krysiak and Kidder home.

Madick recorded her first two outs of the seventh inning on an unlikely 5-4-7 double play. Jaxheimer moved Dreslinski, who had reached on a leadoff single, to second with a sacrifice bunt. But Dreslinski, seeing third base unoccupied, tried to advance and was a tagged out by left fielder Bailey Vertovez, a late defensive substitute, who sprinted in to cover the bag.

That sequence added to the Crimson’s collection of flashy leatherwork on the afternoon, highlighted by a pair of diving catches in right field in the fifth. First Francis made a sprawling grab in the gap in right-center, and then Kidder ranged onto the grass and made a tumbling catch on a low pop-up.

“Our defense has been a staple all year,” Allard said. “It was great to see us come out strong and steady defensively.”

But then Hodge, down to the Pride’s final strike, saved the day and Dreslinski, after a scoreless eighth and a top of the ninth in which Lotti struck out the side, ended it.

As Edwards said, “We’re always telling them, ‘There’s no clock in this game.’”

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.