The Hofstra men’s baseball team continues to stumble in their first weekend of play as they get swept in a doubleheader against the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles 7-2 and 10-7 on Saturday afternoon.
In the first game of their doubleheader, Cade Henry was on the bump for the Pride, and Mason Miller was on the mound for the Eagles. Neither team was off to a good start with a pair of zeroes coming out of the first inning. But the Pride struck first with a single to right field from Santino Rosso for the game’s first hit. That inning then quickly turned in favor of the Eagles, with a strikeout and a fielder’s choice leaving one man on base.
The Eagles opened up the bottom of the second with two runs on three hits to give Florida an early 2-0 lead. The Eagles took control and dominated the rest of the game with a stellar performance from Miller, who held down the Pride’s offense with 4.2 innings pitched, six strikeouts and no walks and held Hofstra to only five hits and two runs.
The Eagles continued to pour on the runs. In the bottom of the third with the bases loaded. Henry committed a balk, which scored Alejandro Figueredo to build a 3-0 lead for the Eagles. The fourth inning saw Florida’s Shortstop Jacob Lojewski take Henry deep for a solo home run followed by a single from outfielder Brian Ellis to knock Henry out of the game. Henry finished the day with 3.1 innings pitched allowing five runs on seven hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
The Pride quickly answered at the top of the fifth with a home run over the left-field fence from infielder Zach Bailey, getting their first run of the afternoon. Then a single to right field by Ryan Morash sent Nick Marrero home from second to score their second run of the game, cutting the Eagles lead to 5-2.
The Eagles tacked on two more runs were on a Kinker sacrifice fly and a Figueredo double to extend their lead 7-2 over in the sixth. Conner O’Hara, who came out in relief for Miller closed out the game in the 7th with a double play and a fly out to center for the win in the first game of the doubleheader.
Figueredo and Lojewski were fired on all cylinders, going 3-4 and 2-2 with a double with two RBIs and a home run with three RBIs. Mason Miller got the win (1-0). Cade Henry was awarded the loss (0-1) in the first game.
In the second game of this doubleheader, the Pride, still searching for their first win, called upon John Mikolaicyk to start the game. While the Eagles gave the nod to Tyler Tipton in an attempt to complete the sweep.
Similar to the first game, both teams went hitless in the first, but the second inning was impactful for the Pride early on. Hofstra began the inning with two walks and a balk committed by Tipton putting men on second and third with only one out. A wild pitch scored Steve Harrington to gain an early 1-0 lead. Rosso put the ball in play, scoring Jake Liberatore on a sacrifice fly for an early 2-0 lead in the game and their first lead of the day. The Eagle’s Kinker opened up the bottom half with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Kinker ended up scoring on an Alejandro Rodriguez ground out putting their first run on the board.
However, in the bottom of the fifth, the Eagles exploded for six runs on four hits to take a commanding 7-3 lead over the Pride. FGCU continued with a two-run home run from Figueredo to expand the lead to nine runs. But the Pride did not go down quietly with multiple hits and an error by Marrero in the 8th creeping closer in an 9-7 game. But stranded two men on base with an Anthony D”Onofrio groundout to third to end the inning.
With a 10-7 lead in the top of the ninth, LJ Mcdonough struck out Kevin Bruggerman and Will Kennedy to secure the second win of the day for the Eagles. Mcdonough was credited with the save. With the win and loss going to Nick Love and Mikolaicyk.
Edrick Felix led the Eagles going 3-5 with a double, home run, and two RBIs. Kinker performed right behind him with two doubles and an RBI on the day. In a losing effort, Kennedy led the Pride going 2-5 with a home run and an RBI.
With both losses, the Pride now stands at an 0-3 record in their first series of the season. The Hofstra men’s baseball team will now turn the page quickly to finish off the last game of the series against the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles on Sun, February 19 at noon.
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
