By Mark Walters
Baseball bounces back from 6-4 loss with 15-3 demolition of New York Institute of Technology
Coming off a tough 6-4 loss Tuesday to New York Institute of Technology, one might think Hofstra’s game the next day at University Field against the Bears would be a toss-up. You know, anyone’s game.
After a 15-3 trouncing of the Bears at the hands of the Pride however, the final game of the two-game series proved to belong solely to the Pride.
NYIT (8-11-1) put six different pitchers against the Pride (12-22), none of whom could stop the bleeding as Hofstra won its 11th non-conference game, and its fourth in its last seven contests.
Pride Head Coach Chris Dotolo was pleased with the win.
“We took advantage of a lot of mistakes by New York Tech. We got a couple big hits early in the game when we needed to with guys in scoring position,” said Dotolo.
The visitors got on the board first in the second inning, but Hofstra scored four in the bottom half of the inning, which was all it needed. Junior Tony Schmitt had an RBI base-hit to score Tom Legregni, and sophomore catcher Elliot Hagburg hit home two after Matt Prokopowicz walked to force Schmitt across the plate.
“We got a couple guys on, we had bases loaded, and Elliot came up with a big hit,” said Felix Adamkiewicz, who scored two runs and was two-for-three with two doubles.
From there, Hofstra scored a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth, and after surrendering two in the sixth to NYIT, the Pride had a comfortable 7-3 lead.
“It’s nice when the team can put up a lot of runs. It takes a lot of stress off the pitching and the defense,” Schmitt said.
Coach Dotolo has been talking a lot to his team about expanding their lead and giving themselves a cushion so that any mistakes they make are not game-breakers.
“Go back and look at a lot of the boxscores and we’ll have a lead by a run or two and then something will happen and we’ll lose the lead,” Dotolo said.
The Pride did not lose the lead Wednesday afternoon, and as the Bears’ pitching struggled, Hofstra scored two in the seventh and six in the eighth to go up 15-3.
“We tried to expand our lead and just keep adding on to it,” said Hagburg, who finished the game two-for-four with two RBI, a walk, and a run. “We did what we had to do and kept getting on the board.”
“I think their pitchers were struggling to throw some strikes. We just went up there and tried to not get out of our game plan and swing at bad pitches,” said senior outfielder Anthony Sarno.
In the Physical Fitness Center’s training room, Dion Pouncil was upbeat about the victory.
“We just came out to play today,” said Pouncil, who has been seeing action as the designated hitter instead of third baseman. “I’m more comfortable at the plate right now and I’m seeing the ball very well. It’s helping me relax,” he added. Pouncil was one-for-three with two walks and two runs.
Junior pitcher Bobby Neelon got the win and added four strikeouts to bring his season total to 33, which leads the team.
The Pride takes this win into a weekend home series against their conference foes, George Mason.
“We are doing a lot better job offensively. We’ve been getting pretty good pitching consistently this year. I think if we keep swinging the bats a little bit, we still got 14, 15 wins in us this year,” Dotolo said.