Despite a third consecutive offensive outburst by junior infielder Brady Steinert, Marist baseball gave up 11 runs and lost 11-7 on Tuesday in a tough afternoon game on Long Island against Hofstra.
Steinert, who went 6-for-11 with four doubles and six RBI this past weekend against NC A&T State after having only three at bats in the first seven games of the season, went 3-for-4 with four RBIs against Hofstra – including both a double and his first collegiate homer. However, his efforts were put to the wayside by a Pride offense that put together 12 hits and 11 runs against the Marist pitching staff en route to their fourth win of the season.
The Red Fox bats picked up right where they left off this past weekend, striking for three runs in the first inning against freshman right-hander Chris Bedford; the outing marked Bedford’s collegiate debut.
Junior infielder AJ Brotz led off the game with an opposite-field hustle double before Bedford lost his feel for the strike zone. He issued three consecutive walks, the last of which forced home Brotz for the first run of the game.
Then, senior infielder/outfielder Nate Lincoln plated Marist’s second run with a fielder’s choice. Steinert followed Lincoln with a ground-ball RBI single to left that chased Bedford from the game after recording just one out and allowing three runs. Junior left-hander Jackson Bauer replaced Bedford and got two quick outs, ending the inning with Marist ahead 3-0.
The Red Foxes extended their lead to 4-1 in the third after Lincoln and Steinert hit a two-out triple and double, respectively.
On the other side, graduate student right-hander Riley Orr took the mound for Marist. Orr struggled during his first two starts of the year to the tune of nine earned runs in just four innings pitched. He was noticeably absent from the rotation against NC A&T State this weekend.
Orr was solid over the first two innings, striking out three and allowing one run, a first inning solo homer by senior outfielder Tyler Cox. But in the third, Orr received a quick hook and was replaced by sophomore southpaw Andrew Speranza after putting two men on.
Speranza surrendered a sacrifice fly to freshman two-way player Trent Jenks, cutting Marist’s lead to 4-2. During the next at-bat, Speranza picked off Cox, the runner at first, as he was trying to steal. However, junior Aydan McNelly, the first baseman for the Red Foxes, elected not to throw Cox out at second despite having ample time to do so and instead threw to third to prevent that runner from attempting to score; had he thrown out Cox, the inning would have concluded.
Promptly following McNelly’s defensive miscue, freshman catcher CJ Griggs blasted a two-run double to center, knotting the game at four before Speranza escaped the inning.
After Speranza tossed a scoreless fourth and junior catcher Kyle Pollack put Marist back in front with a fourth inning solo homer, Hofstra put up four runs across the fifth and sixth innings against senior right-handers Ty Morris and Chris Ubner, including a gigantic solo homer by freshman infielder Tyler Castrataro against Ubner.
Heading into the seventh, Marist’s bats had been silenced since the fourth inning by freshman right-hander Grady Lacourciere. He appeared close to his third scoreless inning after retiring the first two batters in order, but an infield single by Lincoln brought the red-hot Steinert to the plate, and he did not disappoint.
Steinert ambushed a first-pitch fastball from Lacourciere and drilled it over the left field fence for his first collegiate homer, maintaining his incredible hot streak and bringing Marist back within a run, 8-7.
Then, in the eighth with one out and Brotz on first after being hit by a pitch, Hofstra head coach Frank Catalanotto opted to call upon Jenks, a two-way player who had been playing left field throughout the game, to get the Pride out of the inning.
Jenks’ first batter, Rodriguez, dunked a soft single to left off the end of his bat, allowing Brotz to go first to third. Rodriguez took a wide turn at first and was caught in a rundown while Brotz broke for home and was thrown out by Palmer to end the inning with Hofstra still ahead 8-7, swinging momentum back in the Pride’s direction for good.
Hofstra tacked on three more insurance runs against freshman right-hander Logan Scholl in the bottom of the eighth on RBI knocks from sophomore infielder Michael Brown and Palmer and a throwing error by Pollack before Jenks locked down a one-two-three ninth, ending the game in an 11-7 Hofstra victory.
Brotz, Lincoln and Pollack all had multiple hits, along with Steinert, while the Red Foxes put up over 10 hits for the third consecutive game. After their offense struggled to string runs and hits together early in the season, they have looked better of late, with conference play beginning this Friday.
On the pitching side, Orr struggled to eat innings and keep runs off the board for his third consecutive start. He gave up three earned runs in 2.1 innings pitched and now sees his ERA sit at 17.70 in the early season.
Marist will host Merrimack at Heritage Financial Park at 3:00 p.m. this Friday in their MAAC opener.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Photo from Jaylen Rizzo
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