Hofstra will play at defending softball champ Oklahoma in NCAA Tournament opener
The Hofstra softball team gets the crowd going during the CAA softball championship game against Towson at Hofstra on Saturday. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Hofstra softball coach Adrienne Clark was asked about her team’s reaction when it was revealed it has a date with Goliath.
The answer was not surprising. Not if you know Clark and her squad.
“It was excitement, shock, enthusiasm,” Clark told Newsday in a phone conversation shortly after the ESPN2 Selection Show on Sunday revealed that the Pride (29-25) will meet two-time defending national champion Oklahoma (51-1) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.
The Pride gathered at the David S. Mack Sports & Entertainment Sports Complex to watch the show.
“It was everything,” Clark said. “It was awesome.”
Hofstra is the fourth seed in the Norman Regional, which will be at Marita Hynes Field, the Sooners’ home ballpark. Missouri and California fill out the regional. Because of the double-elimination format, regardless of what happens Friday, Hofstra is guaranteed to play a second game.
Opening against the Sooners, the nation’s No. 1 team, is a unique challenge. Oklahoma’s only loss, 4-3 to Baylor, occurred Feb. 19. The Sooners responded by ripping off a 43-game winning streak.
But to hear Clark, the Pride’s focus is insular. It has to be.
“We just need to worry about ourselves at this point,” she said. “We know that they are really competitive. We know that they have a lot of strengths in their toolbox. But I also know that we also have some strengths, and when we play at our best and we focus in on the thing we can do, we have a greater chance of success.”
One of the Pride’s strengths is that it is a veteran squad. Sixteen of the 22 players are upperclassmen.
“We do have a lot of leadership and experience on the team, and I do think they handle things very well,” Clark said.
Like, say, having to win both ends of a doubleheader at Bill Edwards Stadium on Saturday afternoon to clinch the CAA championship and an NCAA Tournament berth.
That is exactly what the Pride did with 6-4 and 5-4 wins over Towson to earn the program’s 21st conference championship and 18th berth in the NCAA Tournament. Angelina Ioppolo’s two-run single with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh clinched the title.
The last time the Pride won a conference championship and competed in the NCAA Tournament was 2018.
Said Hofstra’s Aliya Catanzarita: “To be part of this culture is unreal.”
