Nine walks and eight hit batsmen from the Hofstra pitching staff drove Towson to a 12-6 win Saturday afternoon in the second game of the series. “There’s no recovering, there’s no winning, there’s no scenario you can paint that you can win a game when you give up 17 free [bases],” head coach John Russo said.
Towson’s lineup also strung together 12 hits, including four clutch ones in the first two innings. The Tigers jumped out to a 5-2 lead after two innings due to RBI singles from Richard Miller and Billy Lennox in the first and doubles from Trey Martinez and Miller in the second. Miller’s double accounted for three of the five runs he drove in on the day.
Hofstra’s offense kept themselves in the fight with 14 hits, but just one of them coming with runners in scoring position.
“At the end of the day we had 14 hits, but we left 11 guys on. We’re slowly but surely getting a little bit better. I thought we showed a little bit of fire,” Coach Russo said.
Jorge Marrero (1-4) received the loss for the Pride in a 4.1-inning outing. He plated 10 runners with seven walks, five plunked batters and five hits to go along with four strikeouts.
Kyle Stricker improved to 2-2, going four innings out the bullpen suddenly. In the fourth inning, starter Kevin Ross was struck in the head off a Brad Witkowski line drive. Appearing to be fine, Ross left the game, but was able to walk off the field on his own.
Stricker surrendered three runs on five hits and two walks in the victory. Ross, in 3.1 innings, also allowed three runs.
On the offensive side, the Pride tallied four extra-base hits. Nick Bottari and Brad Witkowski each logged a double. Bottari finished 3-for-5, extending his hitting streak to four games.
Vito Friscia crushed a RBI triple in the first inning, having now reached base safely in 12 consecutive games. The sophomore went 2-for-4 Saturday with a walk.
In the seventh inning, down 10-4, Mike Riesner smashed his second home run of the season, a two-run shot to increase his season RBI total to 19, which leads all Hofstra hitters.
Out of the bullpen for the Pride, Matt Weissheier held Towson to no runs over 3.2 innings with three punch-outs.
James Beasley finished out the game, tossing one frame with two runs.
Hofstra fell to 7-21 overall and 1-4 in conference, while Towson jumped to 12-15 on the season and 2-3 in CAA play.
Hofstra and Towson square off tomorrow in the series finale at 1 p.m.