The Hofstra Pride baseball team dropped its season-opening series to Houston Baptist University after a 6-3 loss on Sunday, Feb. 27, at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas.
Jared Burch got the start for the Huskies and made quick work of the Pride in the top of the first, striking out the first two batters and getting Brian Morrell to pop out to third. On the other side, it was senior Brad Camarda getting the start for Hofstra, and he pitched well to start, only walking the second man he saw before leaving him stranded with two consecutive outs.
After Burch’s second consecutive 1-2-3 inning, Logan Letney connected on a full-count fastball and sent it over the fence to give Houston Baptist the first run of the game. Camarda was up on Letney 0-2 but could not get the out for the Pride.
Jake Liberatore got the first hit for Hofstra on the first pitch of the third inning with a double that landed in right field, but he got caught stealing two pitches later. That proved to be a big mistake as Anthony D’Onofrio singled to center, which Liberatore would have been able to score from and tie the game.
Batting in the nine hole for the Huskies, Diego Davila led off the bottom of the third with a double to left center and then quickly moved to third after a ball got away from Hofstra catcher Kevin Bruggeman. A few pitches later, Connor Fremin singled to right field on a full count to extend Houston Baptist’s lead to two runs.
The fourth inning started with leadoff hitter Ryan Morash hitting a double down the left field line, and Will Kennedy moved him to third on a sacrifice ground-out. After a throwing error by Huskies third baseman Reed Chumley, Morash scored to cut the lead in half and get the Pride on the board.
Sean Flaherty led off the fifth with a single to right and Liberatore followed with his second double of the game, a shot to straightaway center field that went off the facing of the wall. D’Onofrio tied the game two pitches later with a ground out to shortstop that Flaherty easily scored on. Morash came up to bat for the second time in two innings and reached on the Huskies’ second throwing error of the game, but with runners on the corners, the Pride was unable to convert and the game stayed tied at two apiece.
The tie did not last much longer, though, as Tyler LaRue doubled off the center field wall and scored after a sacrifice fly and a soft ground out to shortstop for Fremin’s second RBI which put the Huskies back on top, 2-3, in the bottom of the fifth.
Camarda’s day came to a close after he let two men on base with one out in the bottom of the sixth. He gave up three runs on five hits with three strikeouts and only one walk, while also hitting one batter. He was replaced by Tristan Nemjo, making his first appearance of the year, who struck out back-to-back batters to end the inning, keeping it a one-run game.
Thomas King replaced Burch in the top of the seventh, after Burch only gave up two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. King got two outs before surrendering a single to Michael Florides who scored after Houston Baptist was charged with its third throwing error of the game to tie it 3-3.
Nemjo struggled in the seventh, giving up three earned runs, two of which came off a triple from Austin Roccaforte which broke the tie and pushed the score to 3-6. The Pride got two men on in the eighth but could not do anything with it, and Andrew Reitmeyer got the save in the ninth, ending the game and giving the Pride its second loss of the year.
The Pride will be back in action on Wednesday, March 2, against the Long Island University Sharks in Hempstead, NY.
Photo courtesy of Joe Buvid/Hofstra Athletics
