Daniel Escalante, a freshman from Kingston, Pennsylvania, proved faithful to the Hofstra University baseball team on Sunday, March 1, that the team’s offense is slowly but surely coming alive, going 2-3 with one run scored and another batted in. Yet, the Pride’s offense simply could not catch up to the bats of Liberty University in the two teams’ series finale, when the Pride took a 10-7 loss on Flames territory.
After being swept by the Flames, the Pride remain winless at 0-6. The Flames improved to 7-3 on the season.
After an early exit by Michael Brown in the middle game of the series and Tyler Castrataro departing before the bottom of the third in Sunday’s matchup, the Pride were left without their regular starting middle infield. To combat the losses to Hofstra’s stellar defense, Sam Leonard made his first start for the Pride at shortstop while starting third baseman Gabriel Melara shifted to second base following Castrataro’s exit. With Melara’s transition to the middle infield, Escalante took over the hot corner.
Unlike the first two games of the series, it was the Flames who struck first with scoring. In his first collegiate start, freshman southpaw Nick Reese walked Tanner Marsh with one out, then Marsh came home on an RBI double from Ryan Drumm. With two outs, Drumm came home on Escalante’s error, putting Liberty up 2-0.
Singles from Escalante and Melara gave Nick Biddle two baserunners to send home. After Biddle’s bunt sent both runners home, he too was called safe on a Liberty fielder’s choice. Biddle advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Leonard, then a groundout from JJ DeVito to Flames second baseman Dylan Grabowski sent Biddle home to give the Pride the lead.
The Flames quickly tied the game up when Drumm scored on a wild pitch by reliever Chris Bedford.
With two outs in the top of the sixth, Tyler August came in to pitch with two outs and CJ Griggs on second base. August gave the Pride back their lead when Escalante drove Griggs home on a single to center field.
The bottom of the sixth saw Liberty continue the trend of tying a one-run differential, when Bedford gave up a solo home run to Nick Barone, evening the score 4-4. But a groundout by Tyler Cox sent Leonard home and put the Pride back in the lead in the top of the seventh.
The score remained 5-4 until Liberty once again tied the game up in the bottom of the eighth, after Tanner Sanderoff gave up a leadoff home run to Jaxon Sorenson. With two easy outs, Sanderoff struggled to close the inning, giving up a base hit and two walks to the next trio of batters to load the bases.
Reliever Deuce Musial hit Drumm to send a run home. Musial then gave up a three-run double to Riley DeCandido and an RBI single to Grabowski before being pulled from the game. Brayden Gregg got the final out for Hofstra’s pitchers by striking out Sorenson, putting the Flames up 10-5.
Down five runs, the top of the ninth was Hofstra’s last time to strike. After Biddle and Leonard both struck out, DeVito took first base after getting hit, then stole second base. Cox drove DeVito in on a single up the first base line. Cox also stole second base. Griggs followed with a single up the third base line, driving in Cox, but a groundout by Biddle ended the game.
Hofstra will travel to Poughkeepsie, New York, to face Marist University, who also seeks their first win of the 2026 season. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4.
