Baseball is back, as the Hofstra University baseball team returned to the diamond for the first game of the season on Friday, Feb. 16, losing 10-8 against the No. 14 University of Virginia Cavaliers in a late-inning offensive onslaught.
The Pride traveled to Virginia for their first three games of the season against a highly regarded Cavaliers squad. Virginia finished 50-15 last season while Hofstra finished at a 26-26 record and missed the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) playoffs after winning the conference in 2022.
The Pride’s Dylan Palmer went 4-5 with four straight singles while the middle of the order combined for seven hits. Hofstra had 15 hits overall compared to Virginia’s seven.
Brian Hart compiled two earned runs in 1 inning of work for the Pride, while the Cavalier’s Blake Barker got the win with one strikeout in 0.2 innings.
Palmer started his first at-bat of the season with a single through the left side, then advanced to second on a throwing error putting himself in scoring position. A single from Steve Harrington sent Palmer home with a 1-0 lead after the top of the first inning.
Coming into this season, pitching was the biggest question mark for Hofstra, and it showed in their first game as relief pitcher-turned-starter Michael O’Hanlon received the nod to start the first game of the season. With a 1-0 Hofstra lead, O’Hanlon’s first batter of the game, infielder Griff O’Ferrall, took him deep for a home run, and Virginia tied the game at 1.
O’Hanlon cruised after that at-bat and finished the day allowing three hits and five strikeouts in five innings of work.
Hofstra’s offense picked up the pace in the third inning, beginning with a Santino Rosso single through the left side while Will Kennedy walked to put men on first and second base. Harrington pieced a line drive to right field taking the lead 2-1 while sending Rosso home. Newcomer Alex McCoy hit a ground-rule double in the right-center gap extending the Pride’s lead to 3-1. Transfer student Sean Lane then grounded out to third base, letting Harrington increase the score to 4-1.
The middle innings favored no team until the Cavaliers catapulted six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, stapling down a 7-4 lead with a monster homerun from Virginia’s Harrison Didawick.
There was still life in the bats of the Pride at the seventh inning with a quick Kennedy double off the left field wall scoring Palmer followed by a score on a wild pitch, the score becoming 7-6 for Hofstra.
The Pride fought back with a Matt Pelcher home run over the left field wall in the eighth, tying the game 7-7. Virginia then took the lead back in the bottom of the eighth off multiple wild pitches, scoring three runs.
In the ninth, a McCoy single cut the Cavaliers’ lead to two; however, they stopped the Pride, notching their first win of the season in the books.
Hofstra continues their series against Virginia on Saturday, Feb. 17, with the Pride’s Steven Kaenzig getting the ball rolling on the mound at 1 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Keith Lucas
