CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Cornell softball team (3-4) splits the opening day of Party at Palmer Invitational with a 4-3 win over Hofstra and 8-0 loss to host No. 25 Virginia at Palmer Field on Friday.

Cornell 4, Hofstra 3

Cornell opened its Friday with a 4-3 victory over Hofstra (0-10) that featured four hits and a complete game by junior pitcher Kyrie Denny.

Hofstra started the game with a triple from Tyler Douglas followed by a sacrifice fly from Mackenzi Fitzgerald to put themselves on the board first. The Pride would add one more run in the top of the third with a single from Olivia Malinowski to score Douglas and extend their lead 2-0.

Sydney Stapf doubled to left field in the third to score Charlize Cai, putting the first run on the board for Cornell and cut the lead to 2-1.

Hofstra earned another run in the top of the sixth to make the game 3-1 in their favor.

Three of the four Big Red hits then came in the final inning, Emma Harshberger walked to start the final effort before Lauren Holt hit a single up the right side. Susanna Pate advanced the runners with a groundout. Emma Antich and Maddie Ullensvang each reached on errors from the Pride scoring Harshberger. Cai then recorded two RBIs with a single down the left field line to walk off the game for the Big Red. Cai was 2-for-3 with a double in the third.

Denny pitched her first complete game of the season with a season-high five strikeouts.

Cornell 0, Virginia 8

Conell then fell in its second game of the day to freshly ranked No. 25 Virginia 8-0.

UVA utilized a three hit and two errors in the first inning to start with a 3-0 edge over the Big Red.

Cornell totaled three hits in the game, from Holt and two from Hailey Pirkey, but ultimately left six runners on base in the loss.

UP NEXT

The Big Red continue with the Party at Palmer Invitational at 11 a.m. tomorrow against Seton Hall.