Following a walk-off defeat to tournament hosts Notre Dame – in which the Pirates led for 8.2 innings – Seton Hall concluded play at the Kissimmee Irish Classic with an 11-3 win over Youngstown State on Sunday morning. The Pirates made the most of their six-hit advantage over the Penguins, as four multi-run innings helped Seton Hall earn its fourth win of the season.
Rick DeVito got the start for the Pirates – his third of the season – and pitched six innings in which he allowed three runs on two hits, to go along with six strikeouts.
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Photo via SHU Athletics[/caption]
The Pirates were the first to hang a crooked number on the scoreboard in the third, when a Matt Toke ground ball found its way through the infield and scored two. Following that, a Sebastiano Santorelli safety squeeze to first gave the Pirates a 3-0 lead.
Seton Hall got another run in the bottom of the fourth, courtesy of a bases-loaded walk by Mike Alescio. Alescio – who had scored the third run in the previous inning – won the battle against Youngstown State pitcher Zach Lopatka, and gave Seton Hall the four-run lead. Lopatka pitched 3.2 innings, allowing four runs, four hits and four walks, while striking out two.
In the fifth, Sebastian Santorelli got on base with a triple, and Casey Dana hit him in with a triple of his own. Dana then scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Ryan Ramiz.
The Penguins were able to get on the board in the sixth, as they scored three unearned runs. The Pirates answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning though, as Matt Toke hit his second homerun of the season.
Billy Layne Jr. came on in relief of DeVito in the seventh, and pitched one scoreless inning, before handing the ball off to Ryan McLinskey. McLinskey, and then Hunter Waldis, each pitched a scoreless inning of their own to secure the win.
The Pirates scoring ended with three-run seventh inning. After a Nick Dabrio single and walks from both Ryan Ramiz and Chris Villa loaded the bases, Al Molina hit a ball to the centerfield wall that cleared the bases and gave the Pirates the 11-3 lead they ended the game with.
The win ends a high-scoring weekend for Seton Hall, who put 33 runs across the plate in three games, good for an average of 11 runs a game.
Despite the weekend tournament’s conclusion, the Pirates stay in Kissimmee, Fla. to play Central Michigan this Tuesday, March 6, with first pitch set for at 2 p.m.
Connor Hester can be reached at connor.hester@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @connor_hester31.
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