The Hofstra University baseball team reached a .500 record for the first time this season after sweeping Iona University in a three-game series hosted at Farmingdale State College that ended with a 19 1/2-inning doubleheader sweep against the Gaels on Sunday, Feb. 23. The Pride won the first game 10-9 in extras and the second game 3-1.
“We got the job done,” said Hofstra head coach Frank Catalanotto. “It wasn’t pretty, early in the first game, but we found a way to continue to fight back and tie the game a few times late in the game and wound up winning it. So, I was happy that the guys fought.”
Tyler Castrataro played the hero of the first game with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 13th inning to put the Pride up 10-9 for a final score, in a game that took four hours and 15 minutes to complete.
The long runtime of the first game on Sunday takes partial blame from a delay after game one starter Tristan Nemjo . Gonzalez was checked by about half a dozen Iona personnel before returning to the dugout several minutes later.
Following Gonzalez’s absence and the multitude of Iona defensive changes, Hofstra batters scored first after Bryce Curry drove in Luke Masiuk, who was also hit in the first inning of the first game and twice more later on. CJ Griggs came in on a Michael Brown RBI double the next inning.
After a clean third inning, Nemjo returned to the mound to give up three runs on three hits and two walks and was substituted for Tanner Sanderoff, who came in for long relief in 4 1/3 innings. While Hofstra scored twice in the fifth and sixth innings, on a Jack Fanning RBI single and a Trenton Snyder homer, after striking out three batters in the fifth, Sanderoff’s pitching began to slow down as he gave up four more runs for Hofstra pitchers at the end of the seven-inning regulation. Hofstra returned the favor after Tyler Cox hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, and Castrataro sent Jake Harring home on a double. The Pride stayed alive for six extra innings.
Each team gave up two runs in the next inning but remained scoreless from innings nine through 12. Freshman Brayden Gregg came in to throw six pitches over the Gaels’ final out and secure the Pride’s game-one win.
“[Gregg] is not scared,” Catalanotto said. “He always wants the ball, he always wants to be out there in the big moments, and he was out there at the end of both games. He’s tough, he puts the ball where he wants it, and he makes things difficult on hitters.”
Following a 45-minute break, the Pride and Gaels took the field once more to the series. Fatigued from the first game, game two mostly served as a pitching duel between Branden Brown and Justin Trinidad, the latter coming in after Iona opener Andrelys Payamps was pulled after a one-inning appearance.
Branden Brown’s start marked a comeback in his early Hofstra career, giving up six strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings to make up for a 60.75 ERA against the University of Tennessee on Sunday, Feb. 16.
“[Branden Brown’s] last start wasn’t good, albeit against one of the best teams in the country, so that could have killed his confidence,” Catalanotto said. “But he went out there today, threw strikes and looked good, and that’s what we thought we would get out of him.”
Hofstra scored first in the second game, which was two hours shorter than game one when Dylan Palmer scored on a Cox single to the left side to put the Pride up 1-0 in the bottom of the third. The score remained the same until Branden Brown gave up a double to Sean Stephenson to drive in Matt Wessels to tie the game at 1-1.
Michael Brown was the hero of the second game after a 2-RBI double off Trinidad for a final score of 3-1 Pride. Gregg got the win for both games, an unorthodox statistic for the freshman hurler.
Hofstra returns to campus following their weekend at Farmingdale when they host Long Island University for a midweek single-game meeting. The first pitch is set for 3 p.m. at University Field on Hofstra’s campus on Tuesday, Feb. 25.
