By Jerome Bailey, Staff Writer
Led by senior outfielder Ethan Paquette’s offensive outburst and school record-breaking performance on Tuesday afternoon, the Pride baseball team notched a 22-11 victory against New York Tech.
“I felt pretty good at the plate. We came out swinging real well. Our offense has been sparked every since that Fairfield series so hopefully we can keep it going this weekend,” said Paquette.
Paquette hit a grand slam and a three-run home run while setting a school-record with nine RBI’s. Paquette leads the team in home runs with five. Paquette broke teammate Matt Prokopowicz’s record of eight, for most RBI’s in a single-game. Paquette nailed the grand slam in the fifth inning, to cap off an eight-run inning for the Pride. His second homerun came in the eighth inning.
“He’s pretty locked in and it was good for him, he’s got some power. He was aggressive and feed of the energy of other guys as well. It was good to see him get after it,” said Hofstra had coach Patrick Anderson.
The win for the Pride, who are now 10-13 and 3-0 in CAA play, extends their winning streak to four. As of now, the Pride are the lone unbeaten CAA team in conference play.
The 22 runs scored for the Pride, marks the first time they have reached that total since the 1997 season. The 10 wins for the Pride shows signs of growth. Last season, the Pride did not reach double-digit victories until the final week of the season.
“It’s good, it’s all confidence. We have to get after it tomorrow, and prepare because Georgia State is a really good team,” said Anderson.
Freshman pitchers Dave D’Errico and Jared Rogers and key offensive rallies propelled the Pride to a three game sweep against the Northeastern Huskies 5-2, 9-6 and 6-1. With the wins, the Pride had won nine of their last 12 games.
On Friday afternoon, in game one, D’Errico held the Huskies to one earned run over eight innings. D’Errico only surrendered seven hits and struck out four for his third straight win.
The Pride only trailed in game 2 of the series. On Saturday trailing 5-3 in the second game of the series, the Pride needed a late rally to send the game into extra innings. In the ninth inning freshman Matt Ford and Paquette knocked in two runs to tie the game. In the extra innings, senior Matt Prokopowicz converted on a critical hit for the Pride. In the top of inning 12, with the scored tied 6-6, Prokopowicz blasted a home run and pushed the Pride to a 9-6 victory. Prokopowicz finished the game with 3 RBI’s and four runs scored.
On Sunday, in the final game of the set, freshman pitcher Rogers (2-4) limited the Huskies to one run and four hits in eight innings and also struck out four batters in his longest outing of the year. Over his last three starts Rogers has struck out 15 batters in 19 innings. Rogers also was awarded CAA Rookie of the Week.
Senior outfielder Ethan Paquette bats against Fairfield University. Paquette had nine RBI’s in the Pride’s 22-11 victory over NYIT. (Sean M. Gates/ The Chronicle)
