By Dave Diamond
Sophomore Matt Kougasian continued his impressive season with a bases-loaded double in the bottom of the eighth inning Sunday to give the Pride baseball team a 6-3 win over James Madison in conference action. The hit cleared the bases and completed an impressive series sweep over the Dukes, who own a 14-7 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) record.
The Dukes held a 3-2 lead heading into the decisive eighth inning, but the Pride was finally able to put runners on base and capitalize. Senior Mike Walsh singled home pinch hitter Andy Campana to tie the game, and Ricky Caputo was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Kougasian then ripped the offering all the way to the wall in right center, which allowed all three runs to score.
The red-hot Kougasian is now batting .321 on the season with 16 runs batted in, and the double was his 10th of the season, good for second on the team behind Josh Stern.
“Nothing needed to be said, we knew,” catcher Steve Oliveri said about the importance of this series.
The Pride jumped on top in the first inning when Walsh doubled home his fellow co-captain Oliveri. Hofstra struck again in the second with style as Stern managed to get down the line and score while freshman Tony Schmitt made an intelligent baseball play and got into an intentional rundown between first and second base.
The rest of the middle innings belonged to Pride starting pitcher Pat Rogers as he cruised all the way to the seventh inning before running into trouble. Rogers surrendered back-to-back singles to JMU’s Matt Bristow and Matt Townsend, the eight and nine hitters in the Dukes’ line-up. Figuring Rogers had reached his maximum for the afternoon, head coach Chris Dotolo called on senior David Huth.
“My pitch count had climbed a little bit, I was pretty much just running out of gas,” Rogers said. “I was unable to locate some of my pitches and made a few mistakes to their hitters.”
Huth provided little relief with a walk to the first batter he faced, and then surrendered a bases-loaded double to JMU third baseman Joe Lake, which gave the Dukes a 3-2 lead. Two of the runs were charged to Rogers.
Luckily for Huth, the Pride did find a way to get him off the hook in the eighth with Walsh’s game-tying single and Kougasian’s winning double. Jeff Denlea closed the door in the ninth, and the Pride had accomplished its first series sweep in nearly a year, dating back to last May 13-15 against Old Dominion. Furthermore, it was the team’s first ever series victory against James Madison.
“I really didn’t think I was going to play this weekend…but I got in there and did what I had to do,” Denlea said. “The series got us back in the race for the tournament.”
Huth recovered well after the shaky seventh, pitching a quiet eighth and earning his second win in relief. Denlea’s save was his fourth, while JMU reliever Kurt Houck took the loss.