The Seton Hall Pirates baseball team came away with two crucial victories over the weekend, defeating Wagner, 10-0, and Monmouth, 12-2. The two wins slowly climb the team back into contention after a lackluster start, as the Pirates now sit at 6-12.
Against Wagner, the first two innings were a stalemate, with neither team mustering a hit. The Pirates finally broke the ice with a Steve Grober single to lead off the bottom of the third. A Jerry Huntzinger walk afterwards set up Christian Del Castillo, who with two on and one out, blasted a homer run to right field to break the scoreless tie.
The Pirates were held scoreless for four more innings, but they kept Wagner at bay behind the arm of Ricky DeVito. DeVito went a solid seven innings, leaving with a 3-0 lead. The offense took over in his absence, scoring seven runs in the bottom of the eighth to assure DeVito’s first win of the season.
The scoring started with a Matt Toke single that involved a throwing error, allowing Del Castillo to score. A few batters later, Chris Villa reached on an error, which allowed Casey Dana to score. The next batter was Grober, who was called out on batter’s interference but allowed Tyler Shedler-McAvoy to score on the ensuing wild pitch. There was a wild pitch the next at bat, which allowed Thomas Holdorf to score. The ensuing at bat, Huntzinger doubled to bring home Villa and extend the lead to 8-0. The scoring was capped off by Del Castillo, who’s two-run double was the final blow in a 10-0 blowout.
The Pirates’ bats continued on Sunday, rifling off an explosive 14-hit, 12-run effort. Del Castillo continued to impress with four hits and another homerun.
The Pirates got off to an early lead at 2-0 in the first inning and never looked back. Ultimately, though, it was David Festa who came in relief and picked up the victory.
Shedler-McAvoy also had another impressive showing, driving in three and scoring three times on two hits. Holdorf also had three RBIs.
Joseph Ippolito can be reached at joseph.ippolito@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @joeippy.
