After a 3-1 road trip to the City of Brotherly Love, the Hofstra Pride was swept in a doubleheader by the Villanova Wildcats at Villanova Ballpark in Plymouth Meeting, PA on Sunday, March 7. Game one ended with a score of 5-0, while game two finished 3-1.
The first game started as a pitchers’ duel between Hofstra’s Jack Jett and Villanova’s Gordon Graceffo. No runs were scored until the fourth inning when the Wildcats capitalized on a Ryan Toohers one-out pop fly in the infield that fell for a double. The run was scored with another pop fly, this time with two outs, that went untouched to drive in Toohers. The RBI was credited to Nick Oar.
The score stayed 1-0 until the eighth inning when the Wildcats drove in four more runs. The Wildcats scored on a double by Chris Rotondo, a single by Jack O’Reilly and an infield single by Nick Lorusso, as well as on a Hofstra throwing error. All four runs were scored against Aljo Sujak.
Graceffo dominated the Pride’s hitters, throwing a complete game shutout. He also allowed five hits and struck out seven in the win. Despite taking the loss and giving up a run, Jack Jett gave the Wildcats a headache, striking out 10 and giving up five hits while only allowing one run, which was earned. In his last two starts, Jett has struck out 19 hitters.
The second game also started off as a pitchers’ duel, this time between the Pride’s Jimmy Joyce and the Wildcats’ Jimmy Kingsbury. The game remained scoreless until Villanova took the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a sac fly by Anthony Schooley that scored one run. They added to that lead on a squeeze bunt by Sam Margulis to make it 2-0.
Hofstra got their only run of the doubleheader in the next inning. After a double by Nick Marrero and a single by Aidan Larkin that advanced Marrero, Marrero came in to score on a wild pitch by Kingsbury.
Kingsbury got his first win of the season, putting him at 1-1. Joyce, although pitching a complete game, was credited with the loss, making him 0-1 this season. This was also Joyce’s second complete game, with the first one happening last year against Nevada on Feb. 28.
With the two losses, the Pride fell to an even .500 record, with four wins and four losses in their 2021 campaign. Villanova also improved to a .500 record, as the Wildcats are now 2-2. In the all-time series between the Pride and the Wildcats, Hofstra is now 2-6.
The Pride’s next game is their home-opener at University Field on Friday, March 12 at 2 p.m. They will be hosting the Sacred Heart University Pioneers.
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
