Coming off a 24-33 season with a 13-14 record against Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) opponents, Frank Catalanotto enters his fourth season as Hofstra University’s baseball head coach. The Pride’s 2025 campaign is defined by many new faces across the roster.
“I’m excited,” Catalanotto said. “It’s the first season that we have so many young players. We’ve got 17 freshmen. We lost a lot of our veteran-type guys and seniors and grad students, so it’s a young group.”
Despite Catalanotto’s optimism for his young team, the Pride are only predicted to finish ninth in the 12-team conference.
As Hofstra’s University Field underwent offseason renovations, the Pride took fall practice to local ballfields, including Molloy University and Farmingdale State College, where they underwent the same offseason training regimen as they would on campus.
“In the fall, there was a lot of coaching and teaching,” Catalanotto said regarding preseason training. “It’s good because these guys are really learning quickly and doing a great job, better than I thought they would be, and the young players that we have are really good.”
The Pride earned the No. 6 seed for the 2024 CAA Championship Tournament, only to face double elimination during their time in Wilmington, North Carolina, The Pride defeated No. 3 Northeastern University 12-9 in the opening round on May 22, 2024, but took an 8-7 loss against No. 1 College of Charleston the following day. The Pride then played No. 5 College of William & Mary. Hofstra’s pitching staff failed to get necessary outs, giving up five runs in the bottom of the fourth and six runs in the bottom of the seventh. The Pride’s 16-6 loss marked the end of their resilient 2024 season.
“We got off to a rough start [last season], and we dug up pretty big holes for ourselves, but the guys showed toughness, and they didn’t give up,” Catalanotto said. “There was a point where we were struggling so bad that it could have turned the other way, and we could have potentially not made the tournament.”
Hofstra’s biggest issue last season was their pitching. As a team, the Pride pitched to an 8.02 ERA with a 1.78 WHIP. Hofstra pitchers gave up as many as 30 runs in a game and gave up 10 runs or more 23 times during the regular season. The Pride have 10 new pitchers or two-way players on the roster this season, allowing Catalanotto to bolster his pitching staff and clean up the Pride’s defense.
“[Adding pitching depth] was the big focus for us,” Catalanotto said. “We wanted to make sure we could get some arms that were going to help not only in the rotation but also in the bullpen, and we succeeded with that. I was pleasantly surprised with a lot of the freshmen, but the transfers who came in have impressed me quite as well.”
Catalanotto mentioned freshmen Brayden Gregg and Nick Gallello as two players he expects to see plenty of time on the mound in their first collegiate seasons. Junior transfer Jackson Bauer had a 4-6 record over nine starts and 14 appearances at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). He finished with a 4.78 ERA and 53 strikeouts and is a good candidate for Catalanotto’s rotation.
Several weeks after the Pride’s fall exhibition games, Hofstra’s coaching staff received disappointing news that reliable ace and newly appointed captain Carlos Martinez suffered a torn UCL and is recovering from Tommy John surgery. Martinez will miss the entire 2025 season but will remain a positive role model for Catalanotto’s new pitchers.
“I think [Martinez] is going to have a big impact on the young guys,” Catalanotto said. “He was a young guy himself a couple of years ago and struggled quite a bit, and then last year he put it all together, and he’s now on the radar of Major League Baseball organizations … Not only has he transformed himself physically and on the mound, but off the mound as a leader.”
Catalanotto feels that Martinez’s presence in the dugout, despite being unable to pitch in a game for another 12-18 months, can be beneficial to both his starters and relievers.
“It stinks that we’re not going to be able to have [Martinez] on the mound pitching,” Catalanotto said. “I think the fact that he can show these guys how to lead and tell them about some of the struggles he had as a freshman, and maybe what to avoid, to make sure it doesn’t happen to them.”
Catalanotto is excited to welcome back Sean Hamilton to his pitching staff after sitting out for the entire 2024 season recovering from his own Tommy John surgery. Hamilton appeared in 10 games and made two starts during the 2023 season and put up an 8.83 ERA over 16.2 innings, but Catalanotto is excited about Hamilton’s improved performance following rehab.
“[Hamilton] is looking great,” Catalanotto said. “He won’t be 100% probably until March … He’s such a smart pitcher, he’s such a good pitcher, it’s taken him a little bit of time. Obviously, his first year he struggled a little bit as all freshmen do. Having the Tommy John surgery last year was a disappointment, but I think we have to take positives out of it and know that he’s had some time to now build his arm up, he’s had some time to watch Carlos Martinez and become a smarter, better pitcher.”
With Michael O’Hanlon, Steven Kaenzig and Mike McKenna leaving the team, along with Martinez’s season-ending surgery, Catalanotto is reconfiguring his game-to-game pitching approach. One idea is to give Hamilton and Bauer time in the starting rotation, but Martinez’s ulnar collateral ligament tear keeps many options for reliable pitchers in each role.
“[Pitching] is going to be our strength this year, and to know that I have so many guys I can go to in the bullpen after the starter’s done, it’s exciting for me,” Catalanotto said. “I haven’t had that in the past, it was always the same guy, a guy that had pitched a lot and needed some rest.”
Hofstra’s offense will be led by junior second baseman Dylan Palmer. Palmer came off an impressive 2024 season with a .386 batting average, the third-highest batting average in the CAA. He drove in 31 runs on 93 hits, including nine extra-base hits, and stole 27 of 30 possible bases while starting every game for Hofstra last season.
Palmer was elected to the All-CAA Second Team and the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings All-Northeast Region First Team, as well as ranked the 28th-best second baseman in the nation by D1Baseball. Palmer was also selected for the 2025 CAA Baseball Preseason All-Conference Team.
While Palmer has established himself as a leader on the field, he also remains a humble player.
“I play for the love of the game,” Palmer said. “I play [baseball] because I like winning. I don’t really care about [the accolades]. So, whatever I did last season, I’m just going to try to repeat it every single game.”
Luke Masiuk enters his senior year and second season with the Pride. The outfielder hit .262 and drove in 37 runs, the fourth-most on the team last year and the most of any returning player. Masiuk had a .416 slugging percentage with 16 doubles and four home runs.
Palmer and Masiuk are two mainstays from Catalanotto’s 2024 lineup. Most faces from last year’s regular lineup have graduated, and some, like Alex McCoy and Santino Rosso, have signed professional contracts this past offseason. With so many major losses from last year’s core, Hofstra is reconfiguring both their defense and offense for the upcoming season.
Another concern for Catalanotto is the starting catcher position. Senior catcher Dom Camera will begin his third season with the Pride after batting .200 and making 125 putouts with a .979 fielding percentage. Camera is up against freshmen Nick Biddle and CJ Griggs as Catalanotto’s starting catcher.
In the infield, Catalanotto envisions senior Sean Lane at first base, who had 102 putouts and a .973 fielding percentage last season. Michael Brown will play shortstop after making 43 assists and having a .963 fielding percentage in 28 appearances as a freshman, and Bryce Curry, a transfer from Frederick Community College, will start at third base. Curry hit .392 with nine home runs and 71 RBIs last season. Catalanotto sees the transfer third baseman as a middle-of-the-lineup hitter.
Transfers Tyler Cox and Trenton Snyder will join Masiuk in the outfield. Cox, a senior transfer from the University of West Virginia, hit .250 with a run and two RBIs in 14 appearances for the Mountaineers last season without making a single error in the field. Snyder, who joins the Pride from CCBC Catonsville alongside Bauer, batted .370 last season, hit 15 home runs and drove in 52 runs, and stole 18 bases.
“I think everything takes time to adjust,” Palmer said. “Everyone might not be great at the start, but we’ll eventually come around. We’ll figure this stuff out, and I’m just trying to help everyone.”
Hofstra began their season with a three-game road series against the University of Tennessee from Friday, Feb. 14 to Sunday, Feb. 16. The Volunteers are the reigning NCAA champions after winning their school’s first College World Series, defeating Texas A&M in the finals.
“We know what we’re in for, but it’s nice to measure yourself against the best of the best,” Catalanotto said. “Obviously, they’re the champions, so it gives us an opportunity to see where we are and how we can compete against these guys.
The first pitch of the 2025 season was at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 14, at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.
