NCAA Softball Region 12: Arizona State Beats Hofstra 10-1
5/21/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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TUSCALOOSA, AL --- Arizona State beat Hofstra 10-1 in five innings in the first game of the NCAA Region 12 Championships here in the Alabama Softball Complex.
The Sun Devils came up for their first at-bat of the night in the bottom of the first inning after a three and a half hour rain delay, and promptly scored three runs. They followed up with two more runs in the second inning. Hofstra answered with a run in the top of the third inning before Arizona State put the game away with five runs in the third.
"I felt we were fortunate to be on the right side," Arizona State coach Linda Wells said. "(Hofstra) didn't play as well as they'd like. Anytime you open the door and have the ability to keep it open with runs it helps. At the same time we earned our way too. It was a shared offensive spurt. But they did sputter at the beginning."
For Arizona State it was the first time they had scored more than five runs and its first time to score in double digits in 29 games. The Sun Devils snapped Hofstra's 11-game win streak.
Freshman Katherine Burkhart (12-13) took the win for Arizona State while senior Callie Osborne (24-6) took the loss, which snapped her 21-game winning streak. Juniors Kim Zadrozny and Ashley Werschky both had three RBIs on the night. Sophomore Sharee Zaleski hit a two-run homer in the third inning that cleared the score board in left-centerfield, giving her a team-leading 12 home runs on the season.
"The first pitch was low and I don't know where the second pitch was but I think it was inside," Zaleski said of her home run. "I saw it and just hit it."
ASU will play the winner of today's second game between Alabama and Mississippi Valley State at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday while Hofstra will play the loser of Game 2 at 4 p.m.
