It was another day of victory for the Hofstra Pride baseball team on Saturday, May 1, as they swept a doubleheader over the University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens. They won game one 9-0 and took game two with a score of 8-7 at University Field.
With these wins, Hofstra has now extended their winning streak to five straight games, going back to the doubleheader on Saturday, April 24, against Towson University. The Pride are now one game over .500 with a 15-14 record overall, as well as an improved 6-8 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play. The Blue Hens are now 8-17 overall and they dropped to 4-11 in CAA games.
Jimmy Joyce led the way for the Pride in game one, striking out twelve in six innings of work. Joyce was credited with the win, his third of the season. Joyce also made program history, becoming the 22nd player in Hofstra history to pass 100 career strikeouts. His twelve strikeouts were the second-highest single game total of Joyce’s career.
Hofstra opened the scoring in the third inning, first off of a double by Alex Sica, who was then driven in on a sacrifice fly by Rob Weissheier.
“I felt like 2-0 was a big lead with the wind today,” said Hofstra head coach John Russo. “The ball was just not traveling.”
It took until the seventh inning for the Pride to extend that lead, and they did it by scoring seven runs in that inning.
The Pride completed the shutout thanks to relievers Mike O’Hanlon, Chris Mott, Aljo Sujak, Andrew Mundy and John Mikolaicyk.
Game two was a completely different story. The Blue Hens had a 4-0 lead until the bottom of the second, when Hofstra scored five runs in one inning for the second day in a row. The big hit in the inning was a three-run double by sophomore Aidan Larkin, which made the game 4-3. The Pride took the lead on a two-run single by Weissheier.
“Aidan [Larkin] had three hits [in] that second game, played good defense, and is really filling that role we lost with [Ryan] Morash,” Russo said. “I can’t be happier with how Aidan is going about his business, and [he] is making the loss of Morash a lot less [severe].”
Freshman Tristan Nemjo was credited with the win in game two, the first of his collegiate career. This marks the second day in a row where a Hofstra freshman picked up their first win as member of the Pride, after O’Hanlon picked up his first win the day before.
Reliever Brad Camarda was huge for the Pride, recording a six-out save, pitching two complete innings not letting a runner on base and striking out five.
“I don’t know if Brad [Camarda] has ever thrown better, to be honest,” Russo said. “This year he’s been hit or miss, but, man, he [was] really good [in] those last two innings. Hitting 90 [miles per hour] on the last pitch is something he hasn’t done in a while.”
Camarda’s efforts helped him pick up the save, his first of the season.
Hofstra’s next game is their last at University Field for the 2021 season. They face off against Delaware and hope to bring out the brooms on Sunday, May 2. The game starts at 1 p.m.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
