The Hofstra Pride baseball team’s game set for Saturday, April 22, turned into a doubleheader because of rain in the forecast for Sunday. The Boston backdrop at Northeastern University was the site of two losses for the Pride, as the Huskies completed a sweep.
Hofstra drops to 9-12 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play with a 17-22 overall record. Northeastern improves to 13-5 in conference play and 32-7 overall.
The Pride got the scoring started in the top of the first inning on an RBI single by Santino Rosso, but the Huskies didn’t take kindly to that and scored four runs in the bottom of the opening frame. Danny Crossen began the inning with a one-out solo home run out to the left field. After a walk and a single, Carmelo Musacchia hit an RBI infield single followed by a two-run single hit by Spenser Smith.
Hofstra cut the lead to two on an RBI double by Dylan Palmer in the top of the second inning and then halved that two-run Husky lead to one on a Kevin Bruggeman solo home run at the top of the third inning. That was Bruggeman’s fourth home run of the season and his eleventh in a Hofstra uniform.
The Huskies brought it back to a two-run lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when Gregory Bozzo scored on a Luke Beckstein double to left field on the 2-1 pitch. Hofstra got it back to a one-run lead when Ryan Morash scored on a wild pitch in the top of the sixth.
The bottom of the sixth inning was where the real trouble began for the visitors. After a ground-rule double and a single with one out and a pitching change for the Pride, Mike Sirota singled through the left side to score Bozzo, making it 7-5 Northeastern. Back-to-back RBI doubles from Crossen and Tyler MacGregor made it 9-5. The inning finished with a two-run home run by Alex Lane out to the center field to make it 11-5.
The home team tacked on three more runs; one in the seventh inning, and two in the eighth inning. The two runs in the eighth came on a two-run home run by Bozzo that scored Smith.
Eric Yost had his fourth winning decision of the season for Northeastern after striking out three and giving up four earned runs. Tristan Nemjo was awarded his first loss of the season after giving up seven earned runs in 5.1 innings.
Game two was a different story. The Huskies got on the attack in the bottom of the first, as Alex Lane hit an RBI infield single to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead. Mike Sirota homered to center field in the bottom of the third inning to give Northeastern a 2-0 lead. It became 3-0 after another home run, this time by Cam Maldonado in the bottom of the fourth inning.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, it became 5-0 when Crossen hit his second home run of the doubleheader, which was a two-run home run because Sirota was on base after being walked.
Maldonado came up to the plate again in the bottom of the sixth inning and drilled a ball to left field for another two-run home run that scored Lane.
Hofstra got on the board when former Northeastern transfer Zack Bailey hit a solo home run, his second of the series, out to left field on the 1-2 pitch, making it 7-1.
Lane sealed the deal with a fifth four-bagger for the home side by hitting a pitch to left field in the bottom of the eighth to make it 8-1.
Jake Gigliotti pitched shutouts for six innings, a two-hit ball en route to his seventh win of the 2023 campaign. Brad Camarda was handed his second loss of the season after giving up seven runs, six of them earned in 6.1 innings. Patrick Harrington, who went the final three innings for the Huskies, got his first save of the season.
The Pride’s next game will be against the Long Island University Sharks on Tuesday, April 25 in Brookeville, NY. The first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Pete Coco
