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Seton Hall Athletics[/caption]
The Pirates won the first game of their three-game series Friday night against the Butler Bulldogs, 6-4. The Pirates put up six runs on 10 hits following a loss against Monmouth on Tuesday where they only scored one run. Head coach Rob Sheppard shared his thoughts on the teams hitting in that game.
“We were a little flat and we didn’t come out,” head coach Rob Sheppard said. “We left a lot of guys on base, we didn’t situationally hit well.”
Against Butler, senior infielder Kyle Grimm stepped up for the blue and white, with two RBIs in five at-bats. The hitting wasn’t there for Grimm, going one for five, but he made up for it by scoring runs. Along with Grimm, seven other Pirates managed to get a hit which was the focus coming in to the game on Friday.
“We practiced the last couple of days to get ourselves prepared and to make some adjustment at the plate and we felt like we did that,” Sheppard said.
The starter for the Pirates was sophomore right-hander Zach Prendergast, who went seven innings, giving up four runs on six hits with six strikeouts to get the win. It was rough for Prendergast early in the game, giving up four runs in the fourth inning including a three-run homer to Butler’s Austin Miller. However, after the fourth inning Prendergast starting dealing.
“The pitching was good, [Zach] Prendergast did a really nice job,” Sheppard said. “[Prendergast] actually got stronger as the game went on and deeper in the innings, he actually pitched a lot better."
The Pirates kept fighting back after being down two runs. Junior Zach Weigel drove in a run, cutting the Bulldogs lead to one. Sophomore infielder Joe Poduslenko went one for three, with two RBIs including the tying run in the sixth inning.
“We’ve been pretty resilient,” Sheppard said. “[Our] guys kept trying to take little pieces of that lead back and we did that.”
Freshman Ryan Ramiz improved on his hitting after not getting one on Tuesday by going two for four and driving in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning.
Junior Derek Jenkins was a nuisance for Butler whenever he was on base. Jenkins picked up two stolen bases while going one for two including two walks.
Tyler Boyd started out cold in his first at-bats, but was able to get two hit on his next two, going two for four.
The Pirates are back in action tomorrow in the second game of the series against Butler. Start time is set for 1 p.m.
Javon Glenn can be reached at javon.glenn@student.shu.edu or on twitter @javong25.
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