The Hofstra University baseball team avoided a blowout, but still lost 12-8 against Long Island University (LIU) on Tuesday, Feb. 25. The Pride snapped their three-game winning streak while playing their first midweek game at Farmingdale State Baseball Complex in Farmingdale, New York.
Tuesday’s game against the Sharks marked the first nine-inning game for the Pride this season.
“It’s tough to give up nine runs in the first three innings,” said Hofstra head coach Frank Catalanotto. “It’s tough to climb back from that. I thought the guys battled, we put ourselves back in the game and had a chance.”
Brian Hart, who pitched 1.2 innings of relief against the University of Tennessee on Opening Day, started for the Pride, walking Chandler Ketchup to lead off the game. Hart then forced Benjamin Fierenzi to hit into a double play, hit Noah Sorensen with a pitch but ended the scoreless inning with a flyout from Jack Power.
Hart returned for the second inning but loaded the bases on a hit to Ryan Rivera, an outfield single to Joseph Durso and a walk to Max Samson before being pulled from the game.
Mike Sweeney, a two-way player who spent time catching in the series against Iona University, made his mound debut against the Sharks, albeit an underwhelming one. Sweeney recorded just six outs on the mound, giving up six earned runs, on five hits, facing 14 batters. Sweeney gave up four runs in the third, facing nine batters as the Sharks batted around the lineup.
After Sweeney’s brief stint on the mound, Hofstra began to stage a comeback in the bottom of the third. Dylan Palmer, who had singled and taken second base on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a Jake Harring sac fly and came home on a two-out single up the right side from Tyler Cox. Palmer, who recently scored his 100th career run for the Pride, scored his sixth run of the season in five games.
The following inning, Sean Lane hit his first home run of the season to left field, driving in Luke Masiuk, who had walked the at-bat prior. Three batters later, Tyler Castrataro followed suit, hitting a two-run homer for his first collegiate home run. After four innings of play, Hofstra narrowed LIU’s lead to 9-5.
“Castrataro had a really good game,” Catalanotto said. “He continues to swing the bat well. We’re trying to identify guys that need to be in the lineup, I think he’s proven to be one of them.”
Just like Sweeney, Nick Gallello also made his Hofstra pitching debut against the Sharks as a two-way player and gave up one run over 2.2 innings on the mound. Despite struggling to command the strike zone and walking four batters in his stint, Gallello escaped trouble after walking two batters and scoring Matthew McGurk on a balk in the fifth inning.
LIU’s lead narrowed to 10-8 after Castrataro hit a two-RBI triple to drive in Michael Brown and Dom Camera. Palmer brought in Castrataro on a sacrifice groundout.
Michael Heyman came in for 2.2 innings, pitching scoreless seventh and eighth innings, but ran into trouble in the ninth. Heyman let up a leadoff homerun to Power, allowing two more runners to reach base. Danny Kelleher came into the game, allowing an RBI single to McGurk before getting a double play to end the inning.
“Obviously, we couldn’t give up any more runs at that point,” Catalanotto said. “[Gallello and Heyman] came in, put up some zeros, threw strikes.”
Hofstra travelled to Lexington, Kentucky to play a three-game series against their second Southeastern Conference team this season, the University of Kentucky, which started Friday, Feb. 28. The first pitch of the series opener against the Wildcats was at 4 p.m.
