Baseball blanks Sacred Heart in last game of weekend series
Despite the heavy wind, the Hofstra Pride was able to defeat the visiting Sacred Heart University Pioneers 5-0 at University Field in Hempstead on Sunday, March 14. The win gave Hofstra head coach John Russo his 180th career victory, surpassing Jack Smith as the winningest head coach in program history.
Hofstra won the weekend series 3-1, taking wins on Friday, March 12, Sunday, March 14, and game two on Saturday, March 13. Hofstra is now two games over .500 on the season, with a 7-5 record. Sacred Heart's record sits at 2-10, with their second win of the season having come in game one on Saturday. In the all-time series between the two, Hofstra has an 8-1-1 advantage.
It was a real pitchers' duel, but in the end, Jimmy Joyce was credited with the win, making him 1-1 on the season and dropping his ERA down to 3.25. The loss was credited to Jake Babuschak, making the Sacred Heart freshman 0-1 for the season.
Joyce pitched eight innings of shutout baseball en route to the victory. While he gave up seven hits, he also struck out seven and only gave up one walk, while throwing 101 pitches.
“I talked about how much of a competitor Jimmy Joyce is,” Russo said. “I had a pretty good feeling he was going to be tough to score on today, and [I was] really impressed with his eight innings of work.”
There was no scoring until the bottom of the seventh inning when Anthony D’Onofrio got a double on a fly ball hit to right field that scored in Austin Gauthier to make it 1-0.
“I just have a lot of confidence in Anthony D’Onofrio, and I know how tough he is,” Russo said. “He’s just starting to swing the bat like we all thought he could, and he absolutely killed that ball to right field, and lucky to get a double there.”
Hofstra then made it 2-0 on a single by Ryan Morash with the bases loaded. It became 3-0 on a pinch-hit groundout by Steve Harrington. The bottom of the eighth inning also provided two more Pride runs, one on a triple by D’Onofrio, who soon after scored on a throwing error by Pioneers catcher Trevor Fagan.
John Mikolaicyk relieved Joyce in the top of the ninth to secure the win, having to do it with two men in scoring position nonetheless. He was able to get a strikeout and two groundouts to end the game and prevent anything big happening for the Pioneers.
“Really happy John [Mikolaicyk] got out of that ninth inning; [I] thought he threw really well,” Russo said. “You know, he needs to feel those types of situations.”
Hofstra hitters were also walked a total of ten times in this game, making it the fourth game that Hofstra hitters have been given the free pass ten or more times.
The Pride will look to continue their successful start to the season on Saturday, March 20 when they host the University of Rhode Island Rams at University Field for a doubleheader. Game one starts at 11 a.m., with game two at 3 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
