May 12, 2008

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Senior Bill Hoffman (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) has been named to the weekly BIG EAST Honor Roll and is also the Philadelphia Big Five Baseball Pitcher of the Week, it was announced today. Hoffman tossed an eight-hit complete game to pitch Villanova to a crucial 2-1 victory over Rutgers on Sunday afternoon.

With both teams' seasons riding on the line and the tension mounting with each passing inning, Hoffman steadily set down the Rutgers hitters along the way to his second career complete game and only the second by a Villanova pitcher this season. He matched a season high with eight strikeouts and for the first time in his eight starts this season did not walk a batter. Hoffman blended his fastball with a big curveball to keep opposing hitters off balance, and took advantage of a cool and windy afternoon to record 11 harmless fly ball outs.

Sunday's game was close throughout the entire contest and Hoffman avoided serious trouble by retiring the leadoff man in all nine innings. He also escaped a jam in the bottom of the seventh inning when he executed a successful fake-to-third, look-to-first pickoff move with runners at the corners and one out. For the game, Hoffman threw better than 60 percent of his pitches for strikes and the jam in the seventh inning was the only time in the game that a runner reached scoring position with fewer than two outs.

The victory by Hoffman enabled the Wildcats to clinch a series win over the Scarlet Knights and a potentially important tiebreaker in the season standings. Villanova is tied for seventh place in the Big East standings with three games remaining in the regular season. The Wildcats are one game ahead of Rutgers and are tied with USF, which holds a tiebreaker over both Villanova and the Scarlet Knights.

The Wildcats host St. John's on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the final series of the regular season.

NOTES: Hoffman's other complete game was a 7-2 victory at Cincinnati last season on April 29 ... That win also came in the rubber game of a three-game set and lifted Villanova into contention for a playoff berth ... Hoffman's five wins this season are tied with sophomore Brian Streilein (Staten Island, N.Y.) for the team high ... Streilein threw the only other complete game for the Wildcats this season and did it less than 24 hours before Hoffman threw his ... In the second game of Saturday's doubleheader against the Scarlet Knights, Streilein went the distance in a 7-4 victory ... Hoffman also struck out eight this season in a start against La Salle on April 1 ... This week marks the first time in Hoffman's career that he has earned weekly recognition from the Big East or Big Five.