The Hofstra baseball team powered their way to a 6-3 victory over the UNCW Seahawks on Saturday afternoon behind a stellar outing from ace pitcher John Rooney. A late offensive surge topped by Vito Friscia and Rob Weissheier home runs in the 8th inning provided all the necessary run support to put this game out of reach. Despite chilly conditions and intermittent downpours throughout the game, Rooney was able to turn in his best outing of the season. The sophomore southpaw threw 107 pitches over his eight innings of work on his way to a career-high 10 strikeouts.
Rooney allowed two earned runs on six hits and three walks. He got into trouble in the first two innings, allowing a walk and a double in each inning, but was able to work his way out of any major jams. The only other damage Rooney allowed was in the sixth inning when UNCW second-baseman Brian Mims belted a towering solo home run over the 30-foot fence in center field. The big lefty also kept UNCW baserunners on their toes all day, picking off two runners who got too aggressive.
Rooney ended his day with two final strikeouts in the eighth inning. The first of those strikeouts became highly controversial when reigning CAA Player of the Year Nick Feight was called out on strikes when he couldn’t check his swing. The UNCW bench and crowd went into a frenzy, and when the dust had settled, senior infielder Kennard McDowell was ejected from the bench by the third base umpire.
Hofstra head coach John Russo talked about how important his ace’s performance was at this point in the season. “For us to win games in the CAA starts on the mound…and Rooney’s as good as anybody in the CAA,” Russo said.
While Rooney settled into his groove and began mowing down batter after batter, his counterpart toeing the rubber for the Seahawks was doing the same. Logan Beehler held the Pride hitless until the fourth inning, when Teddy Cillis smacked a double to center field.
Beehler did not have the strikeout success that Rooney relied on, but instead leaned on the defense behind him to take care of business. They did just that. The Seahawk fielders, including Beehler, robbed the Pride lineup of multiple hits with flashy defensive plays.
Finding themselves down 2-0 with only one hit on the board, Hofstra batters were finally able to get to Beehler in the bottom of the sixth inning. Singles from Tom Archer and Teddy Cillis gave the Pride its first run of the game, and all three out in the inning were hard hit drives right at UNCW players.
The hot bats continued for the remainder of the game, chasing Beehler out of the game with a no-decision. Hofstra took its first lead of the game off of reliever Austin Warren in the bottom of the seventh after Brad Witkowski scored on a wild pitch and Weissheier scored on a Chris Hardardt single to make it 3-2.
The Pride tacked on three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when UNCW brought in sophomore Brandon Mulier to pitch. Friscia connected on a full-count fastball, sending it past the outfield scoreboard and into the Fitness Center parking lot. Then, following a David Leiderman single, Weissheier launched his first collegiate homer high over the left-field fence.
Chris Weiss came on to pitch the ninth inning in relief of the dominant Rooney. He allowed a solo shot by UNCW left fielder Ryan Jeffers to lead off the inning, but then got the final three outs without allowing any more damage.
Coach Russo applauded his team’s performance and composure on their home diamond. “It was an overall really good team win…we pitched really well, we didn’t make an error…we had big at-bats when we needed to,” Russo said.
Rooney (3-7) collected the win after his commanding performance while Warren (2-3) took the loss for UNCW.
Hofstra moves to 3-8 against CAA opponents (10-26 overall) with the win as UNCW falls to 6-5 in conference (17-20 overall). The teams will face off in the weekend series finale Sunday at noon at University Field to decide the winner of the series.