Shorthanded against the best team in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), the Hofstra baseball team dropped both games of a doubleheader to the Northeastern University Huskies on April 10. Following a valiant effort in a 3-2 game one loss, the Pride completely imploded in game two, losing 13-5.
Jimmy Joyce led the Pride in game one with 13 strikeouts in seven innings. The Huskies scored the first run of the game on a passed ball in the first inning. Joyce then locked them down until the sixth inning, when a double followed by a wild pitch put a Huskies runner on third base. The home plate umpire called a balk on Joyce, scoring the second run of the game shortly before Jared Dupere hit a towering solo shot to right field, giving the Huskies a 3-1 lead. Rob Weissheier answered with a solo home run of his own in the bottom of the sixth to cut the deficit to one.
Head coach John Russo was thrilled with Joyce’s performance on Saturday. “He’s the ultimate teammate,” Russo said. “He’s the most prepared kid on the team, he lives and breathes Hofstra baseball. He has gotten himself into shape mentally and physically for this season and he’s literally delivered every weekend we’ve played this year. To come out against the best team in the CAA, I believe, and strikeout 13 and walk none shows you how good he is overall.”
The Pride threatened again in the seventh inning, but a slow reaction by Will Kennedy to a passed ball led to the third out in a play at the plate. They failed to put anything else together and fell to the Huskies by a score of 3-2.
Following the game, Russo expressed great displeasure with the umpiring crew. “Top of the sixth guy gets a double, wild pitch, guy on third with no outs. Jimmy [Joyce] gets a strikeout on one hole, strikeout on two hole and he has the best hitter in the CAA down 1-2 and the umpire decides to call a balk on his thirteenth pitch with a guy on third,” Russo said. “I’ve never seen anything like that in 21 years of coaching college baseball.”
Game two was a very different story. The Huskies jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning, with home runs from JP Olson and Dupere and a sac fly from Scott Holzwasser. Anthony D’Onofrio and Ryan Morash answered with RBI singles in the third, but the Huskies ran away with the game from that point. Despite RBI singles from Brian Goulard, Kennedy and Austin Gauthier, the Pride stood little chance of matching the Huskies’ offense, ending in a 13-5 loss.
Photo Courtesy of Jacob Lewis/The Hofstra Chronicle
