After an up and down 2019 campaign that ended with a heartbreaking loss in the regular season finale, the Hofstra baseball team is gearing up for another season with hopes of a better result.
The Pride aims to start the season on a stronger note than they did a year ago, when they had a dreadful record of 6-24 in the first half of the season. Despite their early struggles, they came together as a team and produced a record of 12-7-1 in their final 20 games and finished with an overall record of 18-31-1 and 10-14 in conference play. Unfortunately for the Pride, their dreams of a remarkable comeback and a spot in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament came up short when they fell to the College of William & Mary in the final game of the regular season.
“Last year was kind of bitter,” said Hofstra starting pitcher Jack Jett. “We had a great run toward the end of last season, but this year we want to clean that up because the first half wasn’t good, so now we’re going to hit the ground running and try to start it off how we finished last year.”
With that bitter taste of last season’s finish still in the mouths of the Pride, head coach John Russo is optimistic his team has what it takes to come out firing in 2020.
“The one thing I’ve liked is where our starting pitching is. I feel like Jett, Ryan Rue, Jimmy Joyce and Steven Boscia are all throwing really well, but we do need to get a couple more guys from the bullpen throwing better,” Russo said. “I have liked the effort from the position players, and I feel like in the last three or four days they’re finally starting to catch up with the pitching and have had better offensive days against them.”
Hofstra’s pitching has always been one of their strengths, and this year Russo and pitching coach Blake Nation will be counting on Jett and Rue to lead the starting staff at the top of the rotation.
“[Rue], as a freshman last year, took the ball every weekend, but it was definitely a labor of love because it was hard for him to do,” Russo said. “Some weekends we got three or four [innings] from him, we’ve tried to get five and sometimes maybe a sixth. So we’re going to need a little bit longer outings from [Rue] this year.”
“As for Jett, he really got us going midway through last year,” Russo said. “The last two weekends he beat the [University of] Delaware and William & Mary and had a great summer at the Cape Cod Baseball League. He ended up throwing almost 100 innings this summer, so with those two at the top of our rotation, we’re super excited.”
With the pitching staff looking strong, Hofstra’s batters have pretty big shoes to fill now that star catcher Vito Friscia was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 40th round of last season’s Major League Baseball draft.
“You don’t replace [Friscia],” Russo said. “He is just a great hitter and you hope Rob Weissheier has a similar type year to [Friscia] or something to that nature.”
With Friscia now onto bigger things in his baseball career, senior Weissheier is the next man up to lead the Pride’s offense with his great power and ability to help his younger teammates.
“It’s going to be tough to follow [Friscia],” Weissheier said. “He was something special and really fun watching him hit, but he taught me a few things and hopefully I’ll be able to get going this season and do something like he did.”
Weissheier is coming off a career year in 2019 in which he blasted eight home runs, tying Friscia for the team high, and drove in 28 runs.
To go along with Weissheier, Hofstra features two other young stars at the plate in Austin Gauthier and Anthony D’Onofrio. While both experienced breakout seasons last year, junior Gauthier enters this year being named to the 2020 Preseason All-CAA team. Gauthier looks to build on his 2019 season where he batted .269 with two home runs and 22 RBI.
D’Onofrio burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2019 and also drove in 22 runs with two home runs. Now entering his second season with the Pride, he looks to take another step forward at the plate.
“Getting that experience is important and D’Onofrio getting a lot of starts last year was huge for him coming back this year because he’s now seen that CAA pitching,” Weissheier said. “For [Gauthier], he hit really well last year so he knows what he’s going to see and can really prepare for the season.”
Hofstra also welcomes infielder Brian Goulard, who transferred from Fordham University and will be a much-needed boost for the Pride’s offense. In his final season at Fordham, Goulard drove in 30 runs while also carrying a .280 batting average.
“Having Goulard should also help in replacing [Friscia], but the other thing I like is that we [have] about nine other guys who had over 50 at-bats or more last year,” Russo said. “Last year at this time, we were really inexperienced and didn’t know what we had on the mound or position player-wise so we have a really good idea of where we’re at going in right now.
Although Hofstra was ranked eighth in the preseason coaches’ poll, they hope to prove everyone wrong.
“Our goal is to win the CAA. That’s it,” Weissheier said. “That’s been the goal, that’s what we’ve been working for and putting in those extra hours for every day, to win the CAA.”
Hofstra’s season will kick off on Friday, Feb. 14, when they take on Purdue University in Sanford, Florida.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
