By Andrew Scharff

You can now add baseball to the list of club sports on campus. Started by team President/third baseman Rich Fiore and Vice President/shortstop Nick Carr, Hofstra’s Club Baseball team has been succeeding like many other of the club teams on campus, but they are doing it only in their first year of existence.

Led by head coach A.J. Frey, Hofstra has a group of dedicated guys who don’t play for attention or the perks of being a NCAA team, but they play for the love of the game. Though they have an eyesore record of 4-5, they could easily be 7-2 if a few breaks went their way. Being a first-year team, Hofstra is and has been playing all none conference games this season as they prepare to enter the Northeast Conference of the National Club Baseball Association (NCBA). Some of Hofstra opponents this season included 20th ranked Boston University, Rider University, New York University, SUNY Albany and Fairfield University.

“We started this to provide another level of competitive baseball for the university,” said Fiore. “And I did believe that we would be successful first time out because we have a great group of guys. But I think were also going to even better next year because we will be more organized.”

The Pride Club Baseball team had a nerve-racking but very anxious start. Their season opened on March 24, 2007 as they welcomed Rider to University Field. It was a rough first inning as they fell behind 3-0, but they battled back in bottom half of the first as Mike Pritchard got the first hit in Club Baseball history and he was followed by Jon Cagnard who hit Hofstra’s first homerun which landed right next to Colonial Square. Behind the pitching of staff ace Joe Cummings, (A law student, who previously pitched for Monmouth) Hofstra won their first game.

“The first game was a lot of fun. We were playing on University field against good team in Rider,” Fiore said. “It definitely a great feeling to play on the college stage.”

The next day, the Pride would drop two close games to Fairfield, but the week in the first road game Hofstra rocked Connecticut College 16-5. Then came the biggest challenge, a nationally ranked team. The Pride made the drive up to Boston only to fall short in both games.

But this past weekend Hofstra got back to its winning ways as it swept a double-header from Fairfield, who swept Hofstra earlier in the season. In game one led by Cummings 11 strikeouts and unreadable pickoff move and Carr’s two hits and two runs Hofstra took game one 11-5.

Hofstra decided to use a flare for the dramatic in game two. After leading 11-3 through six innings, Fairfield tied the game. But Hofstra like all season long kept plugging away. Centerfielder Roberto Muniz led off the seventh with a triple and then Fiore hit a blooper to score Muniz. First baseman Dan Larose gave Hofstra some insurance runs as he hit a two-run single past a drawn in infield.

“It’s been great getting out there and seeing everything come together the way it has this season,” said Carr.

Hopefully for Carr and the rest of the team this is just start of something special for seasons to come.