With the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) announcement to grant all student athletes in spring sports an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of seniors on the Hofstra baseball team are looking to return for the 2021 season.
“I’ve been working hard the last month, so I feel like we have a really good opportunity to get Rob Weissheier back, we can get Jack Jett back, Brian Goulard, Alex Sica,” said Hofstra baseball head coach John Russo. “Steven Boscia is looking to come back, Tyler White wants to come back, so basically the whole lineup that ranked 27th in the country in hitting this season should be back.”
While nothing is official yet, Russo is optimistic that next year’s team will be very similar to the one he had this season. Other players such as Myles Mensah, Justin Smith and Jack Berczi, however, will not be returning, according to Russo.
“Mensah got a job and will be working with the Washington Nationals, and Smith got into the Marine Corps as a lieutenant,” Russo said. “Berczi will be graduating and Vinnie Costello might not come back as well, but it will be a little longer until he has a decision.”
The Pride was 4-10 and sitting in last place in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) when the rest of the season got canceled, but with most of their conference-leading offense aiming to return, they remain hopeful for a chance to compete for a title next year.
“We had great camaraderie and a really tough team,” Russo said. “I know our record didn’t show it but we were inches away from being really good. We had six one-run losses and a two-run loss as well so if you flip those to our favor, we’re 11-3.”
“The one thing we could really do was hit and I think we were starting to figure out our pitching, but overall we were just really inexperienced in the bullpen,” Russo said. “With Andrew Mundy not being able to pitch early on in the season, we were trying to work through and find guys to close games.”
The Pride led the CAA in numerous offensive categories this year, including a .302 batting average, .399 on-base percentage, 13 home runs and 7.1 runs per game. However, it was their pitching that struggled the most and resulted in many losses, owning a conference-worst 7.26 team ERA.
Of the seniors aiming to return next season, Weissheier led the group with a .361 batting average followed by Goulard, who batted .298 with two home runs and 10 RBI. Alex Sica was having his best season with the Pride, hitting .244 with eight RBI.
Fifth-year senior and starting pitcher Jack Jett is also most likely returning and ranked fourth on the team with a 3.97 ERA.
The NCAA has waived the typical 35-man roster limit for the 2021 season, which allows seniors to play one more year but also prevents many younger players from getting on the field.
“Next year, Division I baseball will have the deepest and best teams probably ever put out by college baseball because you’re over the 35-man roster limit, so just by numbers alone, you’re going to have more depth and with that we’ll have more competition,” Russo said. “We’re going to have freshmen coming in who were thinking they were going to get playing time early in their careers because we were graduating 13 guys, but now we’ll have to see where we are at when we return in the fall.”
“The way I look at it, though, is that the freshmen will get to be around really good seniors that know how to work and how to lead and do things right,” Russo said. “I told them that whatever they are losing playing-wise next year, they’re going to make up off the field-wise, learning what it takes to truly work and how they should go about their business and act during games and practices.”
During this unusual time, Russo has been staying in touch with his players every week, making sure they are doing well and able to stay in shape while also focusing on their academics.
“Everybody is on Zoom so we meet every week using that, but right now we’re right where everyone else is, trying to finish really strong academically and put up a really good GPA,” Russo said. “We’re also following any updates regarding summer ball and if anyone is going to be able to play and stay sharp for next year.”
“The [Cape Cod Baseball League] was canceled last week and the [New England Collegiate Baseball League] was canceled this past weekend, so my thought for most guys is that they’ll probably only have local options to play,” Russo said.
Although it was short, the Pride hopes to learn from this year’s rocky season and contend for a CAA title next year when their seniors return to the team and life returns to normal.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
