The No. 5 seed Hofstra University baseball team tallied two six-run innings in their 13-0 mercy-rule shutout victory against the No. 4 seed College of Charleston on Wednesday, May 20, to open Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Championship play. The win comes just one game after the Pride took a 23-0 mercy-rule loss in the regular-season finale against Stony Brook University. After the Pride missed out on a 2025 postseason run, this win could hint at a return of a once-dominant postseason force.
Playing in a tournament utilizing a double-elimination format, Hofstra remains in the winners’ bracket while Charleston drops to the losers’ bracket.
Carlos Martinez remained lights-out for the Pride, proving himself a success story of pitching post-Tommy John surgery. Martinez only gave up three hits, struck out six batters and allowed one walk in six scoreless innings pitched. Martinez had strong command of his pitches; 60 of his 81 pitches thrown made their way into the strike zone.
Martinez’s strong outing propelled the rest of the Pride to play their best, creating sporadic offense explosions throughout the game.
“[Martinez] set the tone; he had command of all his pitches,” said Hofstra head coach Frank Catalanotto. “When [Martinez] is pitching like that, you don’t have to score a lot of runs. So, it makes the offense kind of relax a little bit, and the guys were up there having good at-bats.”
Reliever Maddon McArthur came in, giving up one hit and striking out one batter in a scoreless inning.
Hofstra broke up a pair of scoreless innings, bringing in the first six-run inning in the top of the third. Tyler Castrataro led off with a first-pitch double and came home on a fielder’s choice hit from Michael Craig. The Pride’s next run scored on a poor fielding decision, resulting from a fielding error by Charleston’s second baseman, Ethan Plyler, which brought Craig home. Tyler Cox and Nick Biddle each added a two-run single in the inning; all four runs on the last two scoring plays were unearned for Cougars starter Carter Harrington.
The Pride scored once in the top of the fourth, when Michael Brown hit a sacrifice fly to center fielder Reece Holbrook, scoring Danny Corona.
Hofstra’s next big inning came in the top of the seventh, thanks to a three-run homer from CJ Griggs. Brown and Craig claimed first and third base, respectively, setting up a 402-foot shot to right field for Griggs’s ninth homer of the year.
Another set of poor fielding decisions cost the Cougars an additional pair of runs later in the inning. A fielder’s choice hit from Biddle allowed Gabriel Melara to score, and a throwing error by shortstop Will Tippett allowed Nick Gallello to score. The first out of the inning came when baserunner Cox was tagged out while attempting to reach second base. Craig sealed the deal on a Pride victory when he drove in Biddle from second base on an RBI single.
“I thought the approach was great,” Catalanotto said on the team’s ability to take advantage against a slightly weaker-than-usual Charleston team. “The guys were not trying to get too big and hit home runs; they were giving what the pitcher was throwing. We were hitting the ball where it was pitched, and confidence is huge – and you could tell we had some confident hitters up there.”
Alex LaCoste was the Cougars’ closest shot to an effective bat, hitting two of the team’s four total hits. Payton Frehner hit Charleston’s only extra-base hit, a double in the bottom of the seventh.
The Pride was the highest ranked of the winning teams from Wednesday’s games. Joining the Pride in advancing to the second round of the winners’ bracket is the No. 6 seed UNC-Wilmington. Due to seeding, Hofstra faced No. 2 seed Northeastern University at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 21.
