The Hofstra University baseball team ended their season on a high note, taking a 16-15 victory over the College of Charleston on Saturday, May 17.
The Pride end their season with an 18-36 record and an 8-19 record, and they will not appear in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) tournament for the first time in Hofstra head coach Frank Catalanotto’s coaching tenure. The Cougars finish with a 34-20 overall record and a 15-12 CAA record, taking the No.3 seed in the tournament.
Hofstra started slow with struggling pitchers. Starter Jackson Bauer only appeared for 0.2 innings after giving up three runs on three hits, beginning when an error from Nick Biddle behind the plate sent Dariyan Pendergrass home for the first run. Grady Lacourciere came in to finish the inning, when Ben Venables flew out to left fielder Trent Jenks. The rookie pitcher struggled to keep runners off and around the basepath, giving up three runs the next inning without recording a hit but walking four batters.
Down by six runs, Hofstra’s offense began to wake up in the third inning when Luke Masiuk hit a sacrifice fly to send Dylan Palmer home for the Pride’s first run.
The day before his graduation, Masiuk went 4-5 at the plate. Besides his sacrifice fly, Masiuk hit a home run and recorded three RBIs on the day.
Hofstra’s bats came alive the next inning, when they scored at least six runs for the first of two innings. After Sean Lane, Biddle, and Mike Sweeney all walked, Palmer drove Lane home on a base hit to second base.
Palmer’s end-of-season .400 batting average is the highest single-season average by a Pride batter since 2014. Both Palmer and Nick Gallello ended the season with nine-game hitting streaks.
Michael Brown hit a two-run single to right field. Then, following a pitching change and a pair of strikeouts, Gallello drove in Palmer and Brown on a two-run double. Tyler Castrataro then sent Gallello home on a single-turned-error from Charleston left fielder Avery Neaves. Lane doubled on the first pitch of his second at-bat of the inning to drive Castrataro home for the final run of Hofstra’s first explosive inning.
The Pride continued the momentum into the seventh inning, when Masiuk’s two-run home run sent him and Brown to round the bases. Lane drove in a pair of runs on a double, then Biddle scored Lane on an RBI single, and Bryce Curry sent Biddle home for another run.
Hofstra’s lead narrowed in the eighth inning, when Jenks and Michael Heyman combined for eight runs given up in the inning. Both Heyman’s runs came off wild pitches before loading up the bases for Jenks, who forced in a run on a hit by pitch and then subsequently gave up a grand slam to tie up the game.
In his last game as a member of the Pride, Lane homered in the top of the ninth to return the lead to the Pride. Brayden Gregg entered the game for the final three outs, struck out the first two batters he saw, gave up a single to Alex LaCoste and a double to Rafael Soto, and ended the game on a 5-3 groundout.
