The Hofstra baseball team continued its Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) series with the University of Delaware on Saturday, April 17 as it split a doubleheader with the Blue Hens at Bob Hannah Stadium.

The Pride used an offensive explosion and strong starting pitching in game one to defeat Delaware 14-4, but suffered a crushing late-inning loss in game two.

Jack Jett returned to the mound in the first game of the day after a multiple-week absence and picked up right where he left off. The CAA’s ERA leader shut down the Blue Hens over six innings with 10 strikeouts. 

Hofstra’s offense quickly backed up and jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Will Kennedy smashed his second home run of the season, a two-run shot to right field, to put the Pride ahead early on. 

Hofstra’s bats continued their offensive display the very next inning with four more runs off of Delaware starter Dom Velazquez. Steve Harrington began his huge day at the plate by crushing a grand slam to right field that put the Pride ahead 6-1. The freshman finished the game with two hits and five RBIs. 

As Jett fired clean inning after clean inning, the Pride utilized the long ball two more times and brought their game total to four to completely break the game open. In the fourth, Austin Gauthier swatted a solo shot to center field and Ryan Morash drove a two-run bomb to left in the sixth.

After Hofstra reliever Michael O’Hanlon sealed the win in the ninth, the Pride looked for the double-header sweep in game two.

However, despite holding a 5-2 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning, Hofstra’s bullpen failed to hold a late-inning lead for the second time in this series. The Blue Hens rallied for five runs to defeat the Pride 7-5, dropping their season record to 10-11. 

Just like in the first game, Hofstra jumped out to an early lead as Brian Goulard drove in Gauthier with a sacrifice fly in the first inning. 

Mark Faello was strong on the mound once again and limited the Blue Hens to only two runs over 5 1/3 innings. With the game tied in the seventh inning, Hofstra took back the lead briefly on a Santino Rosso RBI base hit and Nick Marrero’s run-scoring double. 

After the Pride tacked on one more run in the top of the eighth, Steven Kaenzig headed back out to the mound in the bottom-half for his third inning of relief. However, after pitching clean frames in his first two innings, Kaenzig quickly ran into trouble with no outs in the eighth.

Chris Mott relieved Kaenzig following a Delaware run to cut Hofstra’s lead to 5-3. The pitching change did not change Delaware’s momentum, however, and the Blue Hens stunned Hofstra with four more runs. 

The Pride will look to get back in the win column on Sunday, April 18 as they wrap up the four-game series with the Blue Hens. 

Photo Courtesy of Jacob Lewis/The Hofstra Chronicle