The Pride men’s baseball team took care of business with a strong 7-1 victory over the Northeastern University Huskies on Friday, April 5, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Hofstra jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning and there was no looking back after that.
The surge in the first inning was thanks in part to senior Parker Quinn, who hit his first home run of the season to send three Hofstra runners home.
Soon after, the Pride extended their lead to four runs in the second inning after Vito Friscia was hit by a pitch, sending the runner from home from third.
Northeastern showed some resiliency, however, cutting the lead to 4-1 after Corey DiLoreto drew a walk with the bases loaded to send a runner home.
That was all that Northeastern could muster on offense. The one run in the bottom of the third was their only run scored the entire game.
Hofstra continued to extend their lead in the later innings. A couple of errors by the Northeastern defense allowed Kevin O’Connor and Rob Weissheier to reach base and draw in some insurance runs. Weissheier extended his on-base streak to 17 games.
The Pride’s offense was able to put up seven runs on the board, but their pitching played a very impactful role in the victory. Hofstra sophomore Jimmy Joyce earned the win on Friday. In 6.2 innings, he struck out six batters and only allowed five hits. This stellar performance helped Joyce earn his first win of the season.
Junior Jack Jett came in from the bullpen to keep the Pride’s strong lead late in the game. In Jett’s 2.1 innings, he had four strikeouts and only gave up one run.
The exceptional pitching performances by each pitcher boosted the Pride to a smooth win over the Huskies.
When Hofstra’s fell to LIU Brooklyn 10-1 just two days before, the Pride could not get any offense going with only three hits the entire game. But on Friday, Hofstra’s offense was much more efficient, putting together seven runs off of six hits.
Parker Quinn had three RBIs for the Pride and Vito Friscia earned two, which was enough to lock up the win.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics