Hofstra’s baseball team finished its regular season strong on Sunday, May 15, defeating the James Madison University (JMU) Dukes 15-6 to conclude their weekend sweep at University Field. The Pride’s offense came in red-hot against JMU starting pitcher Justin Showalter by scoring eight runs in the first inning.
Hofstra finished its regular season on a five-game win streak and improved its overall record to 26-21. The Pride also finished 15-9 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play.
“I think everyone realizes that we’re a tough out,” said Hofstra head coach Frank Catalanotto. “Every single guy one through nine that goes up there is a tough out, so it’s fun right now playing baseball.”
The Pride came to bat in the bottom of the first inning down 1-0 after Travis Reifsnider tripled and was brought home by a Mason Dunaway RBI single. However, Will Kennedy and Brian Morrell quickly got the Hofstra offense started with back-to-back one-out singles. With runners on second and third, Kevin Bruggeman brought them both home with a single that snuck under the glove of JMU’s second baseman Nick Zona.
The Pride tacked on even more later in the inning as Michael Florides laced a bases-loaded double into the left-center field gap that scored two runs and gave Hofstra a 5-1 lead.
Anthony D’Onofrio and Kennedy came back up to the plate for the second time in the inning and ripped back-to-back RBI triples to make it an 8-1 game.
Junior left fielder Kennedy was the Pride’s leading hitter for the day, racking up four hits, including two extra base hits, and three runs batted in. Five other Hofstra batters totaled multiple RBI in the game, including D’Onofrio, Bruggeman, Florides, Steve Harrington and Jake Liberatore and, all with two.
On top of that, Liberatore scored his second home run in as many days in the bottom of the second, adding onto the team’s advantage over the Dukes.
Hofstra starting pitcher Brad Camarda was strong the next four innings, allowing only one run, but eventually he was knocked out of the game by the Dukes’ bats in the sixth. Camarda finished the day going 5.1 innings and allowing four earned runs.
“It was really nice to see [Camarda] give us a chance to win the game obviously, and we feel good going into the tournament now with the way we’ve been playing,” Catalanotto said.
Hofstra’s offense wasn’t done after the first; the Pride scored runs in five out of the last seven innings of the game they came to bat in, leading the coaching staff to commend the team’s offensive display in the day and throughout the series.
“These guys came out and played hard in all three games,” Catalanotto said. “They showed up today with a chance to sweep the series and came out today, and the offense was clicking.”
The Pride will be off for the next week as they prepare for the CAA tournament down in Elon, North Carolina. After being selected to finish in last place in the preseason rankings, Hofstra has a chance to clinch the No. 2 seed under the leadership of first-year head coach Catalanotto. It will be Hofstra’s first appearance in the conference tournament since 2018 under former head coach John Russo.
The 2022 CAA Baseball Championship will begin on Wednesday, May 25, and conclude on Saturday, May 28.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
