47.0°,
Mostly Cloudy Pride set CAA Tournament as goal
New Hofstra baseball head coach John Russo said anything short of qualifying for the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament would be considered a disappointment for a team off to a promising start.
“One of the goals we set is making the CAA Tournament,” said Russo, who spent the past three years as an assistant coach under Patrick Anderson. “Six of the 11 teams get in, and we should be one of them,” he added. “We’ve got talented arms and the offense so far is averaging more than seven runs per game.”
Russo said many of his coaching philosophies are similar to those of Anderson, who guided the Pride to a 12-18 mark in the CAA last season before taking a position in the Baltimore Orioles’ organization. “We expanded the fences last year and we want to be aggressive on the bases and manufacture as many runs as we can,” Russo said.
The pitching staff, which Russo considers one of the team’s biggest strengths, didn’t get off to the best of starts against the bats of Florida State and Notre Dame but picked up some steam once the calendar flipped to March.
No. 1 starter David D’Errico, a junior who can reach 90 on the radar gun and led Hofstra with five victories a year ago, tossed a gem against Quinnipiac with three hits allowed over eight innings of a 9-0 win in the first game of a doubleheader. “David’s a real competitor with a fastball that pops and a good slider with cutting action,” Russo said.
In the second game against Quinnipiac March 3, freshman Dave Jesch dazzled in his first career start. He fired six shutout innings, allowing two hits and one walk while striking out six, in a 6-0 victory. The back-to-back shutouts were Hofstra’s first since 1975. “David has a devastating breaking ball and great composure,” Russo said.
Junior John Tiedemann followed with a strong outing in a 7-2 triumph over Fordham. The projected No. 2 starter, another newcomer, scattered four hits over six innings and fanned six.
