Coming off a 9-6 victory in Piscataway on Tuesday, Seton Hall baseball walked off as winners in a 10-9 game that lasted 12 innings at home against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Wednesday.
Junior Chris Morris took the hill for the Pirates, going five innings and giving up four runs on six hits while striking out six.
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Photo via SHUAthletics.[/caption]
The Scarlet Knights scored first with two runs in the top of the third and two more in the fourth to jump out to a quick 4-0 lead.
The Pirates answered back in the bottom of the fourth with three runs of their own. After loading the bases on three walks, freshman Tyler Shedler-McAvoy got the Pirates on the board with a bases-clearing triple to cut the Rutger’s lead to 4-3. The triple was the first hit of the game for the Pirates and Shedler-McAvoy’s first of his young career.
The Hall caught a bit of luck in the home half of the sixth when Jackson Martin’s long fly ball hit off the centerfielder’s glove, knocking in Shedler-McAvoy to tie the game at four. Then with a man on third and one out, Joe Poduslenko got the job done with a sac-fly to put the Pirates up 5-4.
The back-and-forth action continued as Rutgers took a 6-5 lead in the top of the seventh. After allowing another run in the top of the eighth on a throwing error, the Pirates came storming back to tie the game at seven on RBI singles by Mike Caputo and Al Molina.
Again Rutgers jumped ahead with two more runs in the top of the ninth, and again Seton Hall came back with two runs to tie the game at nine and send it into extra innings.
After two scoreless innings, with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the 12th, Rob Dadona hit a walk off inside the park home run to capture the Pirates’ win, 10-9.
“I was just trying to get on and get in scoring position to let the lineup work and it worked out great,” Dadona said. “I’m just really happy that we pulled together for a really good win.”
In a game that lasted over five hours and saw 14 pitchers used by both teams, Matt Ponsiglione picked up the win in relief.
Nick Santoriello can be reached at nicholas.santoriello@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @NickSantoriello.
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