It was more than seven years ago that Hofstra softball coach Bill Edwards was leading the Pride to another NCAA Tournament appearance. Having taken over in 1990, Edwards was in the midst of a run that would produced an NCAA-record 11 straight conference tournament titles.
The present was good and there was no reason to think the future wouldn’t be better. What Edwards didn’t know was the future was in the stands.
Olivia Galati, a native of West Babylon, N.Y., began going to Hofstra softball games with her parents when she was 13. As a promising high school pitcher, she ultimately decided that she wanted to play close to home and joined the team she used to dream of joining on the field.
“It wouldn’t have felt right if I went anywhere else,” Galati said. “I really felt like I belonged there. It was in my backyard. It was my hometown school.”
With one of college softball’s most dominant arms, Galati has led her hometown school to its first ever Super Regional, where the Pride (41-13) will play tonight at No. 19 South Florida (45-11) in the first game of a best-of-three series (7:00, ESPNU). Game 2 will be played tomorrow afternoon, with Game 3 to follow, if necessary. The winner will advance to the Women’s College World Series.
Galati has not lost since March 4 and is two wins away from setting the NCAA single-season Division I record of 33 consecutive victories. This season, the junior is 33-5 with a Division I-leading 0.91 ERA and 17 shutouts, while also leading the team with a .361 batting average.
“I think we have the one thing you have to have in our game and that’s a hot pitcher,” said Edwards. “You have to have a kid in the circle that has ice water in her veins and can throw a pitch at any time and hit the spot that has to be hit. When Olivia is on her game, she’s like Greg Maddux. She can move the ball a quarter of an inch at any time. She is very special.”
Although the Pride have tied a school-record with 20 straight wins, claiming 39 of their past 41 games, the star in the circle wasn’t enough to help the team avoid an 0-9 start to the season. Galati opened the season with four losses, and with three new starting infielders, the Pride struggled defensively.
But, the games were close, and somehow, the team knew success was too.
“We’re such a different team than we were in the beginning of the season,” Galati said. “We just wanted to win so badly. Once we got the first win, we were able to relax and stop pressing and realized we can do this and eventually it would come along.
“It has been a fun ride, but we’re nowhere near done.”
If that is true, Galati will be the reason. And her coach is confident placing history in her right hand, saying it is likely he could pitch his ace in every game.
“When you got the horse, you ride it,” Edwards said. “She is Secretariat. I’m just going to hitch my cart to her engine.”