The Hofstra baseball team kicked off the 2021 season by splitting a double header against Seton Hall University on Sunday, Feb. 21, at Owen T. Athletic field in East Orange, New Jersey.
The Pride suffered a tough 3-2 walk-off loss to the Pirates in game one, but rallied late in game two to defeat them by the same score.
Senior starting pitcher Jack Jett took the mound in the first game of the double-header, and fired 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball. His offense quickly got on the board in the first inning, scoring two runs off a wild pitch from Seton Hall pitcher Brennan O’Neill and a sacrifice fly from Brian Goulard.
Despite the quick offensive start by the Pride, those were the only two runs they scored in the opener. Seton Hall pitchers O’Neill and Joe Cinnella shut down Hofstra’s bats the rest of the way, escaping from multiple jams along the way.
In the fourth inning, Hofstra catcher Kevin Bruggeman was hit by a pitch and advanced to third after a stolen base and a ground out by Austin Gauthier. However, sophomore infielder Santino Rosso struck out to end the inning, stranding Bruggeman 90 feet from home plate.
Hofstra threatened in the sixth but came up empty once again. The Pride put runners on first and third with zero outs, but three consecutive ground outs ended their golden opportunity.
With the Pride ahead 2-1 in the bottom half of the seventh, their defense committed several errors that allowed Seton Hall to come away with the walk-off victory. Transfer pitcher John Mikolaicyk entered the game for the Pride to close it out and struck out the first batter he faced.
After the first out, things began to go South for the Pride. Mikolaicyk recorded a second strikeout the next batter, but a passed ball allowed for Jace Baqui to reach first base. Hofstra third baseman Ryan Morash made a bad throw to first base on a ground ball from Jerry Huntzinger, allowing him to reach base and Baqui to advance to second.
On the very next pitch, second baseman Santino Rosso booted a ground ball hit by Tyler Shedler-McAvoy, scoring Baqui and tying the game. Mikolaicyk recorded the second out by getting Matt Toke to fly out to center field, with Huntzinger tagging to third in the process.
Seton Hall won the game the next batter after Mikolaicyk threw his second wild pitch of the inning, giving Hofstra players and fans deja vu from last season.
The Pride rebounded in game two, however, coming away with a 3-2 victory thanks to a clutch late home run from Rob Weissheier.
Jimmy Joyce got the start in the second game and continued what Jack Jett did, completing five innings of just two-run ball. After six innings, the Pride trailed by a score of 2-1, struggling to get many runs across for a second straight game.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Hofstra bats returned to their 2020 form, where they led the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in batting, and rallied to take a 3-2 lead. Gauthier led off the inning with a single to right field and advanced on a sacrifice bunt the next play. After the that, Seton Hall recorded the second out of the inning and looked like they were about to shut down yet another Hofstra scoring chance.
Senior first baseman Weissheier delivered in the clutch and smacked a go ahead two-run home run over the left-center field fence for his first bomb of the season. From there, Ryan Rue closed out the game with 1-2-3 innings in the eighth and ninth, capping off a four-inning shutout relief appearance.
The Pride will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 26 at 11 a.m. for a road double header against La Salle University.
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
