Hofstra wins CAA softball title on Angelina Ioppolo's walk-off two-run single

What is it like to accomplish a goal you have devoted your life to?

Something you’ve talked about. Something you’ve dreamed about. Something you’ve envisioned.

To hear Hofstra’s Meghan Giordano, reality eclipsed fantasy.

“Oh, yeah, this is the best thing ever. This is amazing,” she said after the Pride won the CAA softball championship by beating Towson, 6-4 and 5-4, on Saturday at Hofstra’s Bill Edwards Stadium.

Hofstra captured the title with a walk-off win on Angelina Ioppolo’s two-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning of the second game.

In winning the 21st conference championship in program history, Hofstra (29-25) clinched its 18th berth in the NCAA Tournament. The last time Hofstra had won a conference title and qualified for the NCAA Tournament was 2018.

“This is everything I’ve ever wanted,” said Giordano, who was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. “It’s incredible . . . the best day of my life.”

Especially because it did not come easy.

The Pride entered the day needing to win both games against the Tigers (30-25) for their season to continue.

And that reality stared the Pride in the face after Towson scored two runs in the top of the sixth in the second game to take a 4-2 lead.

Becca Vaillancourt’s bloop RBI single in the bottom of the inning cut the deficit to 4-3.

Julia Apsel (10-8), who was named to the All-Tournament Team along with Aliya Catanzarita and Kasey Collins, threw a 1-2-3 top of the seventh.

Brianna Morse, pinch hitting for Madison McKevitt, led off the bottom of the seventh with a double. Olivia Malinowski walked and Collins’ chopper over Towson third baseman Ally Hickman loaded the bases.

Chelsea Manto’s bunt was fielded by Towson starter Maddie Gardner (16-8), whose throw home beat Morse. One out.

Giordano grounded to Hickman, who threw pinch runner Kayla Wilson out at home. Two outs.

The lefty-hitting Ioppolo then worked a 1-and-1 count before slapping a walk-off two-run single.

Members of the school’s men’s athletic programs sat in the first five rows behind home plate, cheering loudly for their softball compatriots. And when Collins and Manto scored the tying and winning runs, the group screamed deliriously — and kept cheering throughout the on-field awards ceremony.

To get to that moment, the Pride needed Giordano’s three-run homer in the top of the seventh inning of the first game to extend a 3-2 lead to 6-2, runs that proved important when the Tigers scored twice in the bottom of the inning.

“I’d like to say that it was my first time seeing a crowd like that, but it wasn’t,” Hofstra coach Adrienne Clark said. “I was really excited when everyone showed up the way they always have, right? I think that’s something so special about the community that we have here because if there’s one thing that people around here know how to do, it’s win championships. And they know what it takes, so it’s really cool.”