By Jeffrey Werner - STAFF WRITER
The opening series of CAA play for Hofstra was a swing and a miss as the Pride dropped the third game in the series against the William & Mary Tribe, 21-12.
The Pride started with a 1-2 record in conference while they added another loss to their overall record, 3-8.
The Pride opened the series on Friday with a doubleheader, taking the first game by a score of 6-4 and dropping the second game to the Tribe 11-1. Prior to the series, Hofstra hadn’t played a game since Feb. 21, which was a lost to the University of Hawaii, with the games during this span postponed due to weather. Head coach John Russo recognized what this long period of rest could do to his team.
“Losing is detrimental to us and then, more importantly, not only not playing a game those days, but we weren’t even able to get onto a baseball field.”
Although the rain stayed away so the rubber match could commence, weather was still a factor in the game, with winds reaching high speeds, blowing every which way and temperatures dropping below freezing.
From the first two innings, it looked as though the Pride and the Tribe would be neck and neck the entire nine innings. William & Mary got out to an early 2-0 lead in the first, but Hofstra cut the lead to one thanks to a fielder’s choice by senior infielder Brett Johnson that drove in Dalton Rouleau.
In the second inning, an offensive explosion was on display for both teams. The Tribe scored four runs in the top of the second, three of those runs coming off a three-run homerun from Charlie Gould. The Pride, however, responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of the second, coming off a two-RBI double by freshmen infielder Mat Annunziata and a two-run shot by Johnson.
The third inning, however, was the end of the offensive performance for the Pride as they struggled for the next five innings to score a total of five runs. The Tribe, on the other hand, had the opposite luck as they saw runs come in bunches, totaling a whopping 14 runs and two home runs by Ryan Hissey in five innings on their way to victory.
