The Seton Hall Baseball team took down the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, 5-1, in game two of a four-game set in Honolulu, Hawaii on Saturday evening, but fell on Sunday afternoon, 8-6, courtesy of a Johnny Weeks walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.
Seton Hall began game two 30 minutes after winning the series’ first game in walk-off fashion, a game which was postponed due to heavy rain. Fresh off the 9-8 win, Seton Hall jumped right back into action in the second game, taking a 1-0 lead in the third inning via a Nick Dabrio RBI-single. Hawaii responded with a run of its own, though, as a throwing error from Seton Hall second basemen Rob Dadona allowed the tying run to score.
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Photo via SHU Athletics[/caption]
The Pirates came back swinging in the fourth, with Connor Hood hitting a two-run triple to right-center that drove home two and give the Pirates a 3-1 lead. Seton Hall added one more run in the fifth with a Tyler Shedler-McAvoy RBI-single up the middle, and the Pirates then capped their scoring with a Mike Alescio single in the ninth. The single from Alescio brought in Rob Dadona, following a throwing error from Hawaii.
Meanwhile, Seton Hall starter Billy Layne Jr. fired five innings of one-run ball, while striking out three. Noah Thompson took over for Layne Jr. in the sixth and kept Hawaii off the board throughout the rest of the game, with the sophomore Thompson completing his first save of the year, while Layne Jr. earned his first win of the season.
The Pirates went back to work in game three of the series and got off to the right start, scoring the first runs of the game in the third inning. Al Molina drove home a run with a bases-loaded single to left, followed by a Shedler-McAvoy two-run single to centerfield that made it 3-0. Hawaii did get a run back in the next half-inning, though, with an RBI single from Logan Pouelsen.
Ricky Devito started the game for the Pirates and was solid in his brief outing, only pitching four innings deep. The run in the third inning was the only one he gave up in his start, as he surrendered five hits and two walks, while striking out four.
Both teams each scored two runs in the fifth inning. Seton Hall had its two runs score on a throwing error from Rainbow Warriors pitcher Cade Smith, while the Rainbow Warriors scored their two runs on a fielder’s choice, followed by an RBI-single for Hawaii’s Tyler Murray. The Rainbow Warriors then added two more runs to tie the game at 5-5 in the sixth inning, on another RBI single and a run-scoring groundout.
The Seton Hall bullpen ran into further trouble in the bottom of the eighth, as Dylan Verdonk loaded the bases with one out. Verdonk was then removed in favor of Corey Sawyer, who walked the first batter he faced to bring home the go-ahead run. Cristiano Del Castillo gave the Pirates a lifeline with a home run that made it a 6-6 game in the top of the ninth, but the Rainbow Warriors had a dramatic walk-off answer in the bottom half.
Sawyer remained on the mound and gave up a one-out single to put the winning run on base. Hawaii left fielder Johnny Weeks then won the contest when he smacked a 2-0 pitch to left, over the leftfield fence, giving Hawaii the 8-6 win.
Jeremy Yelland was the winning pitcher, with his 4.1 innings of relief in which he struck out 10 batters while only giving up one run. Corey Sawyer, who allowed go-ahead runs in the eighth and ninth, took the loss and falls to 1-1.
Seton Hall can still win the series, and will look to do so when it takes the field against Hawaii on Tuesday, March 27 at 12:35 a.m. EST.
Jose Feliciano can be reached at jose.feliciano@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @JFeliciano1101.
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