The Pirates lost both games of a Friday afternoon double header against the Fordham Rams.
The first matchup ended 6-5 and the second finished 4-3. Seton Hall scored runs in the seventh inning of both games, but they came up short on each occasion.
Brennon O’Neil started the first game on the mound for The Hall. After a hitless first inning, O’Neil and the Pirates ran into some trouble in the second. Fordham’s first baseman Peter DeMaria was hit by an O’Neil pitch, followed by Ram’s senior Will Findley, who singled to left field to advance DeMaria to second. Zach Selinger blasted a three-run homerun and gave Fordham their first lead of the contest.
Seton Hall fought back in the third inning. Shortstop Max Viera cracked a double to left-center field with Devin Hack and Will Gale on base and scored both. The Pirates found themselves down just one run entering the fourth inning.
The score wouldn’t stay 3-2 for very long as Fordham scored runs in the next two innings. O’Neil was taken out of the game after hitting a batter and making an error to start the fourth. He finished with three innings pitched, five hits given up, two strikeouts and a walk. Reliever Nick Payero gave up a two RBI double and Fordham led, 5-2. Payero escaped the rest of the inning unscathed, but a DeMaria solo homerun in the fifth inning extended the Rams’ advantage.
The sixth inning was scoreless, and Seton Hall did everything it could to rally in the seventh. Gale stepped to the plate with the bases loaded. He hit a single, which tacked on two runs. A sacrifice bunt advanced both runners to scoring position. Hack came home on a wild pitch and Gale took third. Gale was 90 feet away from tying the game, though Zach Sylvester struck out, and the game finished 6-5.
Game two saw starting pitcher Daniel Frontera on the mound for the second game of the day, but he had some trouble early on. A four-hit, four-run second inning put the Rams up 4-0.
The Pirates answered in the bottom of the second. Catcher Jedier Hernandez hit an RBI single, and Oscar Murray scored. Seton Hall scored another run in the third inning thanks to a Pat D’Amico RBI single, making the score 4-2 after three innings.
The next three innings were quiet as neither team added to their run total. Much like the first game, the Pirates began to rally in the seventh. A Sylvester single scored D’Amico and the Pirates trailed by one. The inning ended at 4-3.
Unlike the first game, the second game was scheduled to go nine innings. In the bottom of the eighth, Seton Hall exploded. After a Hack single, D’Amico brought him home with a single of his own. An error by Rams second baseman Selinger let two more runs score. The Hall led for the first time in either game, 6-4.
Fordham saw the Pirates offense in the bottom of the eighth and raised them five runs in the top of the ninth. Two Seton Hall errors and two more hits resulted in Fordham taking the lead. The Hall was unable to answer, and the game concluded 9-6 in favor of the Rams.
Seton Hall falls to 8-11 on the year after the pair of losses on Friday’s losses. The team’s next game will be the final contest in the three-game series against Fordham. This time, the Pirates will travel to the Bronx to play the Rams on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Louis Pasculli can be reached at louis.pasculli@student.shu.edu.
