Sunday, April 27, 2025
The Hofstra softball team struggled out of the gate to open the 2025 season but still has time to ready the ship for its bid to reach the postseason.
The Pride dropped 19 of its first 21 games before charting a four-game winning streak and has the bulk of the remaining Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) schedule ahead to earn one of the six available spots in the conference tournament. The winner of the CAA playoffs will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which Hofstra achieved in 2023.
“We definitely have hit some moments of growth and challenges,” said fourth-year head coach Adrienne Clark, whose team took 2-of-3 games from first-place Delaware last weekend to stand at 3-6 in the CAA with 18 league games remaining. “We're trying not to focus on the outcomes as much and focus on the things that we can control and our adjustments within.”
Hofstra (6-20 overall) faced a major adjustment entering the season with the loss of ace pitcher Julia Apsel, who was an integral part of the 2023 CAA championship squad and is using her final year of college eligibility at Florida State.
Junior Emma Falen is the team’s new number one pitcher after transferring from UC Riverside. The Folsom, Calif. native recorded eight strikeouts in a 4-1 win against Towson on March 14 to earn the Pride their first league win.
The pitching staff also includes freshman Carley Ernst, a two-time Lancaster-Lebanon League First Team selection during her high school career in Pennsylvania, as well as junior Emily Brennan. Senior Haley Venturini, a Rhode Island native, has battled injuries over the past two seasons and Clark is hoping she can play a key part of the rotation down the stretch of the season.
The Pride’s offense returned some key pieces from last year’s 23-26 team including junior shortstop Alanna Morse, a Mepham High School graduate, who hit a home run in Hofstra’s 11-3 loss to national power Oklahoma on Feb. 16. She also has been solid anchoring the infield recording a .932 fielding percentage last season as a sophomore with 79 putouts and 88 assists.
“She's doing a fantastic job,”said Clark of Morse, who is second on the team with a 308 batting average. “She's also learning how to be a better teammate and support others and she's sort of doing it in a way that is allowing her to play free and compete hard.”
Morse’s former Mepham teammate, sophomore right fielder Lily Yepez, has also emerged as a key part of the lineup after registering 14 hits in 20 starts as a freshman.
Senior first baseman Anna Butler, a Seaford High School product, adds to the Nassau County South Shore presence on the roster. Butler tied a program record for most hits during a seven-inning game when she 5-for-5 in a 4-3 loss to Cornell on Feb. 28.
Butler also can contribute in the pitching circle as well and made her first relief appearance in a 1-0 victory against Howard on March 18, tossing five innings of scoreless relief to earn the win.
“She is so committed to competing hard and to the team,” said Clark of Butler. “That dynamic is really what has been allowing her to figure some things out.”
Sophomore center fielder Chelsea Villar has begun to make waves in the lineup and entered the week as the Pride’s leading leading hitter with a .313 batting average and three home runs. Sophomore Mackenzie Fitzgerald is also making strides as a sophomore with a .293 average.
Hofstra will be on the road the next two weekends for series against Campbell and Drexel before hosting UNC-Wilmington for three games from April 11-13 and College of Charleston from April 18-20. The Pride conclude the regular season by hosting CAA foe Monmouth for a three-game series from May 1-3.
“In the rest of conference play it is about continuing to focus on the things we can control and continue to focus on us,” Clark said. “When we do that, we're capable of beating any team.”
