Hofstra ensured themselves a series victory against the College of Charleston on Saturday afternoon in a 2-1 win over the Cougars. Matt Weissheier gave the Pride a much-needed performance on the mound, throwing 6.1 shutout innings while allowing just three hits.
The Pride gathered ten hits against the Cougars, the first time they’ve recorded double-digit hits in their last 10 games. However, they left runners on base in six of their eight innings at bat.
Both lineups were silenced through four innings due to solid performances by both Weissheier and Charleston’s Griffin McLarty.
However, Mikey Riesner broke the silence with an RBI single up the middle, giving Hofstra the one-run lead. Riesner then scored later that inning on an error, accounting for the only runs scored in the game for the Pride.
Chris Weiss took the ball from Weissheier with one out in the bottom of the seventh. Weiss cruised all the way to the ninth inning when he got himself into a little bit of trouble.
Weiss allowed the first three batters to reach base with the bases loaded and nobody out. Head coach John Russo had seen enough, and thought it was necessary to go out and talk to his team.
“We lost our wits for about a half second, we didn’t know what we were doing, and, I just wanted us to take a break and breathe,” Russo said.
Sure enough, Weiss retired the next three batters allowing one run due to a sacrifice fly by Luke Manzo, giving Hofstra the 2-1 win.
Coming into the ninth inning, the Pride had thrown 17 scoreless innings before Manzo’s sac fly ended that streak.
The Pride moves to 16-15 overall, and 6-8 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play. For Charleston, they now have a 27-13 overall record, and 9-5 in the CAA.
Notable performances for the Pride came from Mikey Riesner and Daniel Page. Riesner was two for four with an RBI, and Page was two for three with a run scored.
Riesner and Steven Foster extended both of their on-base streaks to 14 games in a row.