The Hofstra baseball team snapped a four-game losing streak on Sunday afternoon, defeating the first-place Northeastern Huskies 5-2 in Boston. Home runs from Brad Witkowski and Rob Weissheier topped off a twelve-hit outing for the Pride.
Down 2-0 in the top of the fifth, Chris Hardardt reached on a throwing error to start off the inning. After two quick outs, Witkowski tied the game with one swing of his bat, lining a homer down the left field line.
The next inning, the heart of Hofstra’s batting order jumped all over Northeastern starter Brian Christian. Teddy Cillis and David Leiderman each singled before Wiessheier sent a first-pitch fastball over the fence in left-center field to give the Pride its first and final lead of 5-2.
Hofstra’s pitching was remarkable in the win, as Matt Weissheier and Chris Wiess held the Husky offense to just two hits. The tandem struck out eight and only threw a combined 117 pitches.
Weissheier got his first collegiate start, throwing 3.1 innings of one-hit ball. His only major mistake came in the bottom of the third inning, when he gave up a two-run shot to Northeastern’s Charlie McConnell after hitting Scott Holzwasser with a pitch.
After Weissheier walked two in the bottom of the fourth, Weiss (4-2) came on and worked out of the jam. He went on to allow just one hit in 5.1 innings of relief and earned the win for the Pride.
Christian (5-1) took the loss in the contest for the Huskies, his first of the season, after giving up five runs in five-plus innings on the mound. He struck out three and walked one.
Cillis, Leiderman, Hardardt, Rob Weissheier and Tom Archer all tallied two hits on the day for Hofstra. The Pride now holds a .268 team batting average on the year and has smacked 29 home runs.
With the win in the series finale, Hofstra improves to 11-30 overall (4-11 CAA) this season while Northeastern falls to 22-18 overall (11-4 CAA) and has their six-game winning streak come to an end.
The Pride will look to start a win streak of its own when it hosts Fordham University at 3 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon.
