The Hofstra University baseball team took their first win of the 2025 season in an 8-7 extra-inning thriller against Iona University on Saturday, Feb. 22. Due to weather conditions at University Field, the Pride moved their “home opener” to the Farmingdale State Baseball Complex.
“It’s always nice to get your first win, no matter how it comes,” said Hofstra head coach Frank Catalanotto. “[If it’s] on a wild pitch, we’ll take it. We didn’t see it coming, but we’ll take it.”
Hofstra scored four in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 5-1 lead over Iona. Dylan Palmer earned his first RBI of the season, driving in CJ Griggs on a two-out infield single. Luke Masiuk followed with his first home run of the season, a three-run moonshot to center field.
Jackson Bauer earned a no-decision in his second start for the Pride, giving up six runs on eight hits over 5.1 innings. Bauer gave up four runs in the fifth inning off a sac fly to Damian Rodriguez, a two-run homer to Jc Frias, and an RBI triple from Matt Wessels.
“[Bauer] battled, he labored on the mound,” Catalanotto said. “He’s not going to strike guys out; he pitches to contact, but it’s important that when you have a guy who pitches to contact, the defense behind that pitcher has to be good.”
Michael Brown tied the game after sending Nick Gallello home on a double to left center field during the bottom of the fifth.
Grady Lacourciere came in for 3.2 innings of relief and gave up one run on four hits with six strikeouts. Iona reclaimed the lead in the top of the ninth when Braize Mitchell hit an RBI single up the left side to drive in Sean Stephenson, making the score 7-6 Gaels.
“[Lacourciere’s] fastball was good. He was keeping the fastball down,” Catalanotto said regarding the freshman pitcher. “Early on I thought his slider was really good, towards the end, it tired him a bit, and the slider stayed a little flat, but he wasn’t afraid to pump strikes in there early.”
Hofstra once again tied the game thanks to Palmer’s baserunning. Palmer led off the bottom of the ninth with his third hit of the day before stealing second base. After Masiuk struck out, Palmer reached third base on a failed pickoff attempt by Iona pitcher Tyler Lender and scored on a passed ball to force extra innings.
“[Palmer] is the engine that makes us go,” Catalanotto said. “He gives us a lot of energy when he’s on the bases, he’s a threat to steal all the time, and you can see that he doesn’t have to hit the ball out of the infield in order to get on base.”
Trent Jenks pitched a clean top of the tenth inning, throwing nine pitches, getting Anthony Zollo to fly out to Masiuk, Carson Cahoy to pop out to Brown and Wessels to pop out to Palmer to end the inning.
Hofstra opened their half of the inning with a Sean Lane hit-by pitch; Harring would pitch run for Lane and reach second base on a wild pitch. Trenton Snyder’s grounder to pitcher Matt Zguro sent Harring to third, who eventually scored the game-winning run on a wild pitch after Gallello struck out.
Hofstra finished up the series against the Gaels with a doubleheader on Sunday, Feb. 23. First pitch for the first of two seven-inning games was 11 a.m.
