The Hofstra baseball team lost game two of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Elon Phoenix by a score of 8-1. Hofstra now holds a 12-32 overall record and are 5-12 in Colonial Athletic Association play. Elon is 21-26 on the year and 11-9 in conference play.
Teddy Cillis led the Pride with 16 strikeouts, marking the highest in a game from one player in program history.
Cillis pitched for a season-high seven innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on eight hits. Unfortunately, even with his record-setting outing, Cillis did not get the run support he needed and earned the loss, dropping his record to 0-9 on the year.
“Tonight was electric,” said Hofstra head coach John Russo. “[Cillis] had his breaking ball in play the whole time, he had his changeup in play. I mean, Teddy Cillis had plus-plus stuff today.”
The Hofstra offense was only able to muster four hits and one run. The Pride had its only lead in the bottom of the first inning when Vito Friscia brought homr Brad Witkowski on a single to left field.
Later in the first inning, David Leiderman fouled a ball off his shin and began to walk around with a limp, using his bat as a cane to keep his balance. After a few minutes of trying to ease the pain, Leiderman got back into the batter’s box. One pitch later, after Leiderman fouled the ball down the first base line, he collapsed in pain and was helped off the field. That was the end of the day for Leiderman and Tyler White came in to finish the at-bat. White struck out on the next pitch.
“The big thing for us right now in the next 24 hours is to figure out who’s healthy,” Coach Russo said. “We’re really, really, really banged up and we have to see how we heal overnight.”
Elon scored in the third inning and never looked back. The Phoenix scored eight unanswered runs to end the game.
The Pride only had one hit from the second inning until the seventh inning against Elon starter Jordan Barrett.
Barrett went seven innings, allowing only one run on four hits with eight strikeouts. After the seventh inning, Barrett’s day was done and George Kirby came in to pitch in relief. Kirby shut down the Pride, pitching two perfect innings and striking out four while only throwing 17 pitches.
With the season coming to a close, Hofstra knows that they must start to win consistently to have a shot to play in the CAA tournament.
“We’ve got to win [on Sunday]” Coach Russo said. “We’re pretty much knowing that we have to win this series.”
