The Hofstra University baseball team got the car keys and drove full throttle in game two of a weekend series with the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell) River Hawks. The Pride took the series by slaughtering the River Hawks by a score of 20-4 at Edward A. LeLacheur Park in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Hofstra’s record is 25-24 on the season, making this the first time in 2023 that the Pride is now playing over .500. UMass Lowell’s record drops down to 17-30 on the season. Hofstra leads the all-time series 4-1.
Hofstra went on the offensive on the road immediately. Back-to-back singles began the game before Dylan Palmer scored after a throwing error by Robert Gallagher to make the score 1-0. After Steve Harrington hit a single to extend his on-base streak to 41 games, Ryan Morash brought in his first RBI on a sacrifice fly to double the Pride’s lead. Bruggeman scored on a double by Anthony D’Onofrio to put Hofstra up 3-0.
The Pride added two more runs in the second inning. A Bruggeman single brought in Michael Florides, and Morash got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, which drove in Dylan Palmer. Hofstra struck again in the third inning after Bruggeman was walked with the bases loaded and Morash hit a two-run single to left field, scoring Santino Rosso and Palmer.
The Pride took a 10-1 lead in the top of the fourth when Rosso hit an RBI single, followed by Bruggeman bringing in another run after reaching on another error.
While the River Hawks came back with another run in the bottom of the fourth inning, Hofstra just kept punching and punishing as Zack Bailey brought in the Pride’s 11th run of the game after he reached on an error at third base, allowing Morash to score. D’Onofrio scored to make it 12-2 on a fielder’s choice grounded into by Florides. With the bases loaded, Bruggeman brought in his fourth RBI on a bases-loaded walk.
In the top of the sixth inning, Morash hit a single into right field and then moved up to second base on a passed ball. Morash advanced to third on a D’Onofrio single and then scored on an error by right fielder Alex Luccini, giving the Pride their 14th run. Sammy Burman followed that up with an RBI single up the middle. Rosso hit an infield single to shortstop which then resulted in yet another error for UMass Lowell, allowing two more runs to score to make it 17-2. Bruggeman came up right after and drove in his fifth RBI of the day with a single to make it 18-2.
After getting two consolation runs in the bottom of the eighth inning on a double by Trey Brown, Hofstra got to 20 in the top of the ninth inning. Morash got his fifth hit, a double, that scored Rosso and made the score 19-4. Burman brought in his second RBI on a sacrifice fly that drove in Frankie DiMartino. This was Burman’s first career multi-RBI game.
Mark Faello finished the day with his sixth win of the season. The Hofstra grad student went five innings, giving up two earned runs on seven hits and striking out four River Hawk payers. Joshua Becker dropped down to 4-3 on the season for UMass Lowell. He only went two innings, giving up five runs with only one of them earned. Becker also struck out one Pride hitter and gave up six hits.
Team captain Ryan Morash was the star for the Pride, going 5-5 and driving in five RBIs. In a stretch that started at home against the UNC-Wilmington on April 28, he has gone 17-32, driven in 18 runs and been struck out only twice.
Kevin Bruggeman also drove in six runs, which is a single-game career-high, and extended his hit streak to 13 straight games in the process.
The 20-run performance was the most runs Hofstra has scored in a game since the team scored 27 runs on March 13, 2021, against Sacred Heart University.
The Pride looks to sweep the series on Sunday, May 14. The first pitch is scheduled for noon.
Photo courtesy of Rob Cuni
