HEMPSTEAD, NY -- Michele DePasquale hit a solo home run with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Hofstra University softball team a 2-1 victory over Delaware Sunday afternoon at the Hofstra Softball Stadium.

The Pride, which swept the three-game weekend series, improved to 29-13 overall and 11-3 in the Colonial Athletic Association. Delaware, which has now lost five consecutive league games, fell to 14-21-2 overall and 5-9 in the conference.

The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Hofstra used a pair of Blue Hen errors to push across an unearned run without the benefit of a hit. With one out Casey Fee reached on an error by Delaware first baseman Michelle Kenney, and after she stole second, Fee went to third when UD catcher Quinn Megargel’s throw to second went into centerfield as nobody covered the base. Carolann Lubach then lifted a foul ball into leftfield, and Fee scored on the sacrifice fly to give the Pride a 1-0 lead.

Delaware, which was shut out twice by Hofstra starter Kayleigh Lotti in Saturday’s doubleheader, scored the tying run in the top of the sixth inning. With two outs Katie DeSalvo worked a walk, and she moved to second when Michelle Plant singled up the middle. Kim Ovittore (at right) then singled into rightfield, and DeSalvo beat the throw to the plate to knot the game at 1-1.

Barbara Traynor led off top of the seventh with a walk, and she moved to second when Lubach’s pickoff throw went into rightfield. However Lotti got Megargel to ground out, and reliever Joanna Kralowetz struck out Shanette White and Cecile Egan to escape the jam.

The Pride put runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but Blue Hen pitcher Carolynn Sloat got Ashley Lane to line out to shortstop and Courtney Oliver to ground out to third to send the game into extra innings. However with one out in the eighth DePasquale lined a 1-1 pitch over the rightfield fence for her first career home run to end the game.

Kralowetz earned the victory for the Pride and improved to 10-3 after allowing one hit and striking out three in 1.2 innings of relief, while Lotti gave up one earned run on three hits with 11 strikeouts and four walks in 6.1 innings of work. Sloat dropped to 8-13 after allowing two runs, one earned, on seven hits while striking out six batters and walking three.

Ovittore went 3 for 4 with an RBI for the Blue Hens, while Plant had the other Delaware hit.

The Blue Hens travel to Bucknell on Wednesday for a 3 p.m. non-conference doubleheader with the Bison.

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