By Mark Walters
After a CAA series win down in Atlanta and a two-game local road trip-the first a 9-4 win over Fordham followed by a 7-2 loss to New York Institute of Technology-Hofstra headed north to Boston for a three-game series against CAA foe Northeastern last weekend.
The Pride took game one on Friday, 5-2, but dropped both games of a doubleheader Saturday to the Huskies.
Sophomore Matt Prokopowicz went yard in the first inning of game one after senior Anthony Sarno walked and Matt Kougasian singled to make it 3-0. That was Prokopowicz’s eighth home run, which leads all Hofstra batters this year.
Tom Legregni stole home in the second to put the Pride up 4-0. It was the first time a Hofstra player has stolen home all season and was also Legregni’s 17th steal of the year, which leads the team.
The host Huskies managed two runs off Pride pitcher Rob Kumbatovic in the bottom of the second to cut the deficit in half, but Kumbatovic pitched a complete game and surrendered nothing else en route to the victory.
Prokopowicz was 2-for-4 with three RBI and a run. The win was Hofstra’s fifth in its last seven conference meetings.
Saturday was a different story, however, as the Pride lost 8-5 and 6-2 in games one and two, respectively.
Huskies senior Mike Lyon hit three home runs, including a walk-off blast in the seventh to lift Northeastern past Hofstra in game one.
Down 5-0 in the fourth, the Pride scored two runs courtesy of Dave Cole’s grounder to second which scored Prokopowicz. Junior Nick Panzarella followed Cole’s lead with a single that scored Kougasian. Two more runs in the sixth made it 5-4 and Hofstra managed to tie the game at 5-5 in the seventh when catcher Elliot Hagburg hit Chris Mentrasti home.
Brody Fontaine took the loss for Hofstra on the mound while Sheldon McDonald got the win for Northeastern.
Hofstra scored first in game two, but the 1-0 lead did not last long as the Huskies scored three runs in the bottom half of that inning.
After a Northeastern home run made it 4-1, Prokopowicz made it 6-2 off a double that scored Mentrasti.
Bobby Neelon got the loss for the visitors while McDonald earned his second win of the day.
Hofstra will be back in action this weekend as it hosts its final series of the season-a three-gamer against CAA opponent Virginia Commonwealth