Final: Hofstra 8, Sacred Heart 5
WP: Faello
S: John Mikolaicyk pic.twitter.com/p1MyK5fsIs— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) March 12, 2021
The jubilance of playing their home opener in March on a beautiful 66 degree, sunny afternoon quickly turned into trepidation as the Hofstra Pride fell behind Sacred Heart, 5-0, in the second inning on Friday at University Field.
Sacred Heart managed to score their first run on a fielder’s choice, they added two more on a two-run double by Julian Pedrouzo, a fourth on an error by Ryan Rue and a fifth on a double by Austin Markman. At that moment, it did appear that the game was firmly in doubt.
But Hofstra made a move to the bullpen, calling on RHP Mark Faello (Plainview JFK 2018) to put out the fire in a precarious situation with a runner on second and no out. He promptly allowed a single and a walk, but with his back firmly against the wall he struck out the next two batters to strand the bases loaded.
At the moment, it appeared that enough damage potentially had been done to prevent Hofstra from coming back in the game but the momentum completely shifted from there. Faello’s ability to contain the damage wound up allowing the Pride to scratch and claw their way back into the game.
They got on the board in the bottom of the third on an RBI double to center field by Rob Weissheier to score Anthony D’Onofrio. They had an opportunity to score more, but Brian Goulard flew out to end the inning and strand two runners in scoring position.
In the fourth inning, Sacred Heart’s defense sabotaged them as Luke Napolitano – last weekend’s hero – ripped a single to right that got under the glove of the right fielder and went to the fence. Kevin Bruggeman scampered around from first to score and Napolitano hustled into third for the two-base error to make it 5-2.
Brian Goulard ripped an RBI single to left to score Santino Rosso and cut the deficit to 5-3.
All the while Faello was still in the game, throwing up zeros and letting his team come back in the game. He wound up with a pitching line of five innings, zero runs, one walk and six strikeouts.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Pride broke through with a five-spot. The big knock came on a game-tying two-run shot by Rosso to right field. They took the lead on an RBI single by Goulard to score D’Onofrio to make it 6-5. They tacked on two more runs on two errors and they now led 8-5.
Chris Mott came on in relief and fired a 1-2-3 seventh inning with a strikeout. He went back out for the eighth and retired the first two batters, and appeared to strikeout the next batter to retire the side but the pitch skipped past the catcher to allow the batter to reach safely. A single and walk followed, though, and suddenly the potential go-ahead run was at the plate.
Coach Russo called on his bullpen ace John Mikolaicyk to put out the fire and that’s exactly what he did, striking out Steven Schoen to end the jam. He went back out for the ninth and induced a 1-6-3 DP to erase a leadoff single and then coaxed a game-ending ground out to SS to end the game.
With the victory, the Pride improve to 5-4 on the season, while Sacred Heart drops to 1-8.They will be back in action on Saturday with a double header beginning at 11am.
