The Hofstra University baseball team was swept 5-2 and 7-5 in a doubleheader by the Elon University Phoenix on Friday, May 19, eliminating their last chance of making the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament next week.
“Disappointing day, not the way I thought it would go when I woke up this morning,” said Hofstra head coach Frank Catalanotto. “The better team won today. I thought Elon played well today. We didn’t do enough [in] the games; we didn’t deserve to win the games.”
In the first game of the doubleheader, Brad Camarda opened for the Pride. He went through 7.1 innings, allowing six hits and five runs in his time on the mound. As a result, he picked up the loss, bringing his record to 6-3. Graduate student John Mikolaicyk relieved him in the middle of the eighth inning, keeping the Phoenix hitless in the five remaining outs.
Game two saw Mark Faello start for Hofstra, going three innings and giving up back-to-back solo home runs and a three-run shot in his time on the mound. Faello was handed the loss, dropping his record to 6-7. To kick off the fourth inning, Danny Kelleher took the mound for 1.2 innings, allowing one run on three hits before Michael O’Hanlon came in to close out the afternoon. O’Hanlon went 4.1 innings, allowing the last run and only two hits for the final 13 outs of the afternoon.
“[O’Hanlon] wanted the ball,” Catalanotto said. “He’s one of our best pitchers, and we felt like he gave us the best chance to keep it where it was and give us an opportunity to score runs. He even came up to me in the bottom of the ninth and said, ‘Hey, if we tie it up, I want to go back up there.’”
On the offensive side of the ball, Hofstra combined for 17 hits across the entire doubleheader. While the team secured plenty of base hits throughout the first game, the actual scoring starting off with Zach Bailey’s solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Kevin Bruggeman added a solo shot of his own in the bottom of the eighth, but that’s where the scoring concluded. In the first game, the Pride out-hit the visitors 10-6, but stranded eight runners, unable to cash in more runs.
“We couldn’t get those timely hits,” Catalanotto said. “In the past few weeks, we were getting those big hits, and when you’re getting them, you rely on them, and when they don’t show up, the offense doesn’t look that good, and we don’t score as many runs.”
Two people who stood out in the doubleheader were Bailey and Dylan Palmer. Bailey picked up two RBIs on four hits throughout the day and Palmer recorded five hits and two RBIs.
“We knew [Palmer] was a good player, but we didn’t know that he was going to light the CAA on fire,” Catalanotto said. “He doesn’t play like a freshman; he plays like he’s been around for a while. He puts together good at-bats.”
The team finished the season 26-26 overall and 13-15 in conference play, while Elon’s record improves to 32-20 overall and 19-9 in conference play.
Photo courtesy of Evan Bernstein
