The Hofstra University baseball team lost the last game of a three-game series to the Manhattan College Jaspers, 8-2.
“It was disappointing,” said Hofstra head coach Frank Catalanotto. “Carlos [Martinez] left too many pitches over the middle of the plate. It looked early on that his stuff looked really good and we thought we’d have a better outcome, but they were able to take care of him and score a bunch of runs.”
Martinez continues to struggle as the middle of the season nears. He only survived 4.2 innings, allowing six runs and six hits. However, he had eight strikeouts throughout those struggling innings.
“Well, something has got to change,” Catalanotto said. “Obviously what we’re doing isn’t working, and we’ve been trying to get him to throw more of a two-seam fastball, but everything seems straight and in the middle of the plate. We have to talk more about a mental approach and put a premium on first-pitch strikes.”
The game saw nine hits for the Pride with all nine men left on base due to poor pitching and offense. Hofstra struck first in the bottom half of the first with a Luke Masiuk sacrifice fly taking a 1-0 lead.
Jasper’s Noah Mattera dominated on the mound in his 6.0 innings pitched, letting up two runs off seven hits while picking up three strikeouts.
Noah Mattera shut down the Pride in the middle innings while, in stark contrast, Hofstra let the floodgates open in the third. With Manhattan’s Vincent Davis up at the plate, two men on and a 2-1 lead, Davis slammed an opposite-field three-run home run to take a 5-1 lead over Hofstra. That hit basically sealed the game from the third inning.
“We’ve been leaving a lot of guys on base lately,” Catalanotto said. “It’s disappointing because we pride ourselves on doing a good job with runners in scoring position, and our approach seems to be faltering a little bit. That’s something that we’re going to have to go over in the next couple of days because I haven’t been liking it lately.”
Martinez let up another RBI single from Davis in the fifth, taking him out of the game with the Jaspers leading 6-1. Cade Henry came in to relieve Martinez and struggled almost straight away. Henry let up a sac fly in the sixth to extend the Jaspers’ lead to 7-1.
Tanner Sanderoff clipped his first hit of his collegiate career with an RBI single to right field, trying to keep the game alive at 7-2. However, Jack Mahoney came in and closed the game for the Manhattan Jaspers with an 8-2 victory and series win.
Along with the rotation, the bullpen has had its ups and downs this season.
“Lately they’ve been a bit better compared to how they pitched earlier in the year, and that’s a mindset, to be prepared and ready to pitch and again throwing strikes is huge,” Catalanotto explained. “It’s going to be a constant message to these kids to be prepared, and hopefully we can right the ship in that regard.”
Hofstra continues their downward spiral into a 6-11 record. The Pride plays a pair of out-of-conference games this week on the road against Columbia University and Fordham University. But the real season starts on Friday, March 22, when Hofstra begins their Coastal Athletic Association stretch of the season against the league’s best, Northeastern University.
Their game with Columbia is on Tuesday, March 19, with the first pitch at 3:30 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Matteo Bracco
