NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (April 18, 2025) – The Stonehill College softball team split a Northeast Conference doubleheader against Central Connecticut State University on Friday at the CCSU Softball Field, dropping the first game on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the eighth before winning the second game, 6-3.
 
GAME 1 – Final/8 CCSU 10 (15-24, 11-5 NEC), Stonehill 9 (10-27, 2-11 NEC)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Sophomore Piper Hofmann (Windermere, Fla.) led off the game with a bang, launching a home run over the left center field fence to give the Skyhawks a 1-0 lead.
 
CCSU led off the bottom of the first with a double, and two batters later, the Blue Devils took the lead when Reagan Vunak hit a two-run homer to left center.
 
Junior Jessica Brill (Natick, Mass.) extended her hit streak to four games in the second inning, tying the score, 2-2, with a solo homer to left field for her first homerun of the season.
 
The Blue Devils led off the bottom of the second with a home run to center, taking a 3-2 lead, before adding four more runs in the inning to build a five-run advantage, 7-2. Vunak launched her second home run of the game, driving in three runs for CCSU.
 
CCSU's Ava Cino recorded her second home run of the game, a solo shot, in the bottom of the third to make the score 8-2. The Skyhawks started off the top of the fourth with a pair of walks, redshirt junior May Dawes (Beacon Falls, Conn.) drove in a run with an RBI single to right center. The next at bat, senior Chloe Kelly (West Bridgewater, Mass.) drove in another run with a single to left to make the score 8-4.
 
After a scoreless fifth inning, Brill led off the sixth with her second home run of the game to left field to make the score 8-5. The next two batters went down in order, but the Skyhawks started a two-out rally with back-to-back singles from Hofmann and freshman Grace Conaway (St. Paul Park, Minn.). Sophomore Harper Sullivan (Glendale, Ariz.) came up next, rocketing a double to left field to drive in both Hofmann and Conaway to bring the Skyhawks back within one, 8-7.
 
CCSU loaded the bases with no one out in the bottom of the sixth, but senior Shannon Conte (Amesbury, Mass.) got the force out at home from third, followed by an infield pop-up and a strikeout as sophomore Alex Sciarretto (Bristol, Conn.) escaped the jam unscathed.
 
Sophomore Natalie Bottiglieri (Massapequa, N.Y.) came up with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the seventh, poking a single through the left side of the infield to drive in the tying run. The Blue Devils limited the damage to just one run as the teams went to the bottom of the seventh tied up, 8-8.
 
The Skyhawks forced extra innings, and senior Isabella Therrien (Auburn, Mass.) blasted a solo home run over the left field fence in the top of the eighth to give Stonehill its first lead since the top of the first, 9-8.
 
With two outs and a runner on first in the bottom of the eighth, CCSU's Ava Cino hit her third home run of the game to walk it off for the Blue Devils, winning the game 10-9.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Brill went 3-4 with two home runs, a single, two runs batted in, three runs scored, and a walk.
• Hofmann had a home run, a single, two runs scored, and an RBI as she's on a three-game hit streak.
• The Skyhawks hit a season-high four home runs with Hofmann and Therrien joining Brill with one long ball each.
• Sciarretto went six innings in relief for the Skyhawks, giving up just three runs, no walks, and three strikeouts while dropping to 1-8.
• Cino had three home runs for the Blue Devils, including the game-winning walk-off homer.
• Conaway went 2-4, recording her eighth multi-hit game of the season and improving her batting average to a team-best .380.
• 10 different Skyhawks recorded hits in the high-scoring NEC battle.

 
GAME 2 – Stonehill 6 (11-27, 3-11 NEC), CCSU 3 (15-25, 11-6 NEC)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Stonehill offense didn't slow down after its nine-run first game, as Conte lined a single to left field with Hofmann and Sullivan on second and third to drive in both runners, putting the Skyhawks up 2-0 in the top of the first.
 
An RBI single from the Blue Devils cut the Skyhawk lead in half, 2-1, in the bottom of the first, but freshman Melanie Snyder (Howard Beach, N.Y.) answered for the Skyhawks in the third inning, driving in Therrien on an RBI single.
 
CCSU scored a pair of runs on another Ava Cino home run and an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to tie the score, 3-3. The score remained tied until the top of the seventh, when Therrien hit an RBI double to center field to put the Skyhawks up by one, 4-3.
 
Stonehill added on two more runs in the seventh, and freshman Amelia Styskal-Ward (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) held the Blue Devils scoreless in the bottom of the seventh to secure the 6-3 win and her first victory in the circle for the Skyhawks.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Styskal-Ward improves to 1-2 in the circle, all seven innings, allowing three runs on nine hits and our walks, while striking out three.
• Therrien had a double and single to record her ninth multi-hit game of the season and fourth double on the year.
• Conte recorded a season-high three RBI in the win and ranks tied for second on the team with 16 total this season.
• Brill added a base hit for the fifth game in a row, and Hofmann drew two walks as she is amidst a four-game on-base streak.

UP NEXT

• Stonehill softball continues its Northeast Conference series in New Britain, Conn., tomorrow afternoon for one more game against CCSU at noon.

 
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