Baseball sweeps Saturday doubleheader over Rhode Island

Brian Goulard and Steve Harrington were the two heroes for the Hofstra baseball team on Saturday, April 3 as they swept the University of Rhode Island in a doubleheader with two thrilling victories at University Field.

Hofstra defeated the Rams 3-1 in extra innings in game one after rallying late to tie it, and they won it on a walk-off home run by Goulard. The Pride continued their clutch hitting in the second game, as Harrington broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run bomb to right field in the sixth inning, and they held on for the 5-4 win.

“I was amazed by almost everything we did today,” said Hofstra head coach John Russo. “[I] couldn’t be prouder and you can’t have a more tough team than what we have here at Hofstra.”

Senior starting pitcher Jimmy Joyce cruised through six innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts in game one. However, Rhode Island starter Mike Webb was equally as dominant, limiting the Pride to only one run with five strikeouts in seven innings pitched.

“[Joyce] exudes all the toughness we believe in ... he had great stuff early sitting around 92-94 [miles per hour] for a few innings,” Russo said. “Then in the second game, he couldn’t have been a better teammate in willing every guy out there and just being locked in for 21 outs.”

Hofstra’s bats were stifled for the first five innings as they trailed 1-0, but the Pride rallied against Webb in the sixth to tie the score. With two outs and the bases empty, The Pride caught a lucky break as Ryan Morash’s fly ball to right got lost in the sun, resulting in a double.

After Morash advanced to third base on a wild pitch, Harrington delivered a clutch game-tying single to right field.

With the game in extra innings at 1-1, the senior Goulard stepped to the plate with only three total home runs in his six-year collegiate career. But, on a 2-1 count and a runner at second, Goulard crushed a fastball from Nate Seprosky over the trees in right field to win the game in walk-off fashion.

“The wind was blowing in so the ball wasn’t traveling very much, but that just shows you how strong Brian Goulard was there in the eighth inning to hit that walk-off,” Russo said.  

While Goulard came up with the big game-winning hit, Jimmy Joyce’s sixth-inning escape was a huge contributing factor in the game one victory. With the bases loaded and zero outs in the inning, Joyce manufactured a shallow pop fly, a strikeout and a ground ball to first base to stun the Rams and keep the game 1-0.

“I think the thing that changed the whole day was [Joyce] getting out of that bases loaded, no-out jam,” Russo said. "I think if we give up runs right there, we probably lose game one and probably don’t have the momentum for game two.”

The momentum that shifted in the sixth inning of game one stayed with the Pride all throughout the second game, as they rallied late once again for a 5-4 victory.

Hofstra jumped out to an early 3-0 lead as starting pitcher Brad Camarda got off to a strong start on the mound, but Rhode Island scored runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to tie the score.

With one out in the bottom half of the sixth and the score at 3-3, Morash roped a triple into the right-center field gap that gave the Pride life once again. Later, with two outs and Morash still at third, the freshman Harrington came to the plate as a pinch hitter and delivered the biggest hit so far in his young collegiate career.

“Harrington is a really tough kid. He had a big hit in the first game there to tie it and homered there late in game two,” Russo said. “He swings the bat well all the time in practice, he just needs some more game experience. We’ve been seeing him hit for a while and I’m really happy it paid off for him today.”

Rhode Island did not go away easily and loaded the bases again in the top of the seventh with less than two outs. But, just like Joyce did in the first game, Chris Mott powered his way through the middle of the Rams lineup to seal the doubleheader sweep.

Now at 9-6, Russo has turned his team completely around after suffering heartbreaking losses and falling to 4-10 one year ago. The two main factors in the Pride’s success in 2021, according to Russo, are belief and confidence.

“We had a lot of late-inning losses last year when we were 4-10. We could have easily been 10-4,” Russo said. “We returned all the position players and I think guys like Jack Jett and Jimmy Joyce really grew up a lot, [and] I’m really happy to have Camarda back in the rotation as well. I think Mott, [John] Mikolaicyk and [Mark] Faello have all helped us late in games, which is where we really struggled last year.”

Hofstra, now with a 9-6 record, will stay home for the upcoming week and welcome the 10-5 Northeastern University Huskies to University Field as they open Colonial Athletic Association play on Friday, April 9 at 3 p.m.

Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics