May 4, 2008
Box Score
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - Sophomore Ashli Breau officially shattered the George Mason softball team's all-time single season batting average record on Sunday afternoon, but it was the pitching performance of Hofstra's Kayleigh Lotti which determined the outcome of the Patriots' regular season finale. Lotti allowed no hits while striking out 12 batters in a five-inning, 8-0 Pride victory.
The Patriots ended their season with a 19-32 record, 6-14 in the Colonial Athletic Association, while the Pride (39-10, 18-3) will host next week's CAA Championship as the number-one seed.
Lotti (17-5) held the Patriots hitless for the first time this season as she recorded her fourth career no-hitter. Mason starter Becky Anderson (14-17) took the loss as she allowed eight runs (seven earned) on 10 hits. Hofstra was led offensively by Erika Bernstein, who finished the day 3-for-4 with an RBI.
Anderson and the Patriots held the Pride scoreless through three innings, but three straight Mason errors in the bottom of the fourth inning allowed Carolann Lubach to score the day's first run.
In the fifth, however, Hofstra put together a seven-run inning which induced a run-rule victory. All but one Pride player reached base as a string of base hits allowed seven runs to score and give the Pride the series sweep on its second run-rule win of the weekend.
The day marked the end of the Patriots' 2008 campaign, one in which a number of school records were broken. Breau, who had already set a new home run mark with 11, finished with a .421 batting average, over 20 points higher than previous record-holder Ashley Purcell's mark of .398 in 2004. Additionally, her slugging percentage of .752 bested Nakoma Sours' prior school record by nearly 150 points. Breau's 48 runs batted in fell just two short of tying the school record. In the pitching circle, Anderson's 36 appearances eclipsed the previous school record of 35.
Sunday's game was the final time in a Mason uniform for three seniors: first baseman Kristin Dickel, catcher Lesley Hassen, and third baseman Katlyn Winter.
