By Alex Hyman, Staff Writer
The pattern continued for the Pride this past weekend as it followed up a victory in a series opener against Colonial Athletic Association opponent Delaware with two losses. The Pride did the same thing the previous weekend, dropping two straight at James Madison after winning the opener.
In the opener against Delaware, sophomore David D’Errico took the mound and gave the Pride one of its best starts of the year.
He lasted into the eighth inning, giving up just five hits and two runs.
“He was first pitch strikes, second pitch strikes, and he finished at bats,” Hofstra head coach Patrick Anderson said. “His pace was great and he let our defense play comfortably and strong.”
Hofstra got on the board in the second when freshman catcher Matt Reistetter hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring freshman outfielder Kenny Jackson.
In the fifth inning, junior third baseman Joe Perez led the inning off with a solo homerun, his second of the year. After back-to-back hits, sophomore shortstop Matt Ford singled to knock in Reistetter. The Pride got one more across in the seventh on an RBI single by freshman secondbaseman Bobby Gazzola to take a 4-0 lead.
The Blue Hens got two back in the eighth, but the Pride bullpen was able to shut the door and give the Pride a 4-2 win.
“The first game of the series is always a good one to set the tone with,” said Anderson.
In the second game of the weekend series, the Pride sent senior Rob Kumbatovic to the rubber to try and give the Pride its first winning streak of the season. The Blue Hens were able to put two runs on the board in the first and four overall as Kumbatovic lasted five innings, giving up eight hits.
The Pride trailed 5-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning when it was able to load the bases with nobody out. Freshman outfielder Bryan Verbitsky got hit by a pitch to get one run home, a wild pitch got another run across, and senior designated hitter Kevin Flynn knocked in a third run.
Trailing by two runs heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Pride had one more rally left in it. Back-to-back two-out doubles from junior outfielder Danny Poma and junior catcher Dylan Nasiatka put the tying run in scoring position, but Perez was unable to get in the tying run and the Pride fell to Delaware 6-5.
“We made some crucial errors and have to step up at the right times offensively and we didn’t do that,” Anderson said of the one run loss.
Sophomore pitcher Jared Rogers was sharp through the first three innings of the rubber match, but Delaware got to him in the fourth. He lasted 3.1 innings, giving up four hits and three runs.
The Pride could not get anything going offensively until the eighth inning when Poma homered to right field. In the ninth, junior outfielder T.J. Thomas knocked in one run with a single but it was not enough as the Pride dropped the game and the series.
