The Hofstra Pride baseball team picked up their fifth straight victory with a 1-0 win over the College of William and Mary on Friday night at Plumeri Park in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The contest was a pitcher’s duel throughout, as Hofstra (19-15, 8-8 Colonial Athletic Association) ace John Rooney struck out 5 and walked one en route to a complete game, three-hit shutout of the Tribe (15-27, 3-13 CAA).
Rooney outdueled William and Mary starter Bodie Sheehan, who had eight punchouts and yielded just one unearned run in seven innings of work.
The Pride played some small ball and took advantage of a Tribe defensive miscue to scratch across the game’s only run in the fifth inning.
Daniel Page drew a one-out walk and stole second base to put himself in scoring position. Page advanced to third on an error by William and Mary shortstop Zach Pearson, and then came around to score on a sacrifice fly to center field off the bat of Steven Foster.
The story of the day, however, as it has been throughout the season, was the masterful performance of Rooney, a junior from Melrose, NY. Rooney came into the season is the 14th-ranked left handed draft-eligible pitcher by D1Baseball.com.
Friday’s game was his third complete game in his last four starts. He has pitched at least six innings in each of his ten starts this season.
Rooney, who lowered his CAA-leading earned run average to 0.85 on Friday, has allowed zero runs in seven of his ten contests this year.
Rooney has struck out at least ten batters in a game three times this season. He also leads the CAA in opponent’s batting average (.152), and is second in the CAA in innings pitched so far this season (74).
While Rooney is terrific at getting batters out at the plate, he is also great at recording outs on the basepaths. Rooney leads the CAA in runners picked off with 12, which is nine more than the second-place pitcher in that category.
He is the only starting pitcher in the CAA to have allowed fewer than ten runs so far this season.
Hofstra will look to try and generate more offense in their remaining matchups with William and Mary on Saturday and Sunday.
