The Seton Hall men’s baseball team suffered a series opening loss 12-7 to the Iona Gaels on Friday, March 21 at Mike Sheppard Sr. Stadium.
This followed a dominant 17-7 eighth inning mercy rule win against the Dartmouth Big Green on Wednesday, March 19. Iona was coming off a 13-10 loss to the Wagner Seahawks on March 19 as well.
Despite getting hit in the head with a pitch and exiting the game against Dartmouth, sophomore outfielder AJ Soldra proved he was just fine, hitting a triple over Iona’s left fielder’s head. A fielder’s choice the next at-bat from first baseman Marco Ali helped the Hall take an early 1-0 lead in the first inning.
For the Pirates, sophomore catcher Kevin Milewski and freshman left fielder Magnus Krieger extended the lead to 2-0 with back-to-back doubles. A single from sophomore third baseman Joey Calabretti helped the Pirates take a 3-0 lead heading into the third inning.
Despite not having much success against junior starting pitcher Ryan Reich, the Gaels were able to turn things around in the third inning. A single to left field from graduate first baseman James Kemp drove in two runners to cut the deficit to 3-2, as Gialloreto prevented the Pirates from scoring in the bottom of the inning.
The Gaels kept putting pressure on Reich, managing five hits and scoring two more runs to take the lead, while forcing his exit after recording only one out in the inning. After freshman pitcher Stephen Curry struck out the first batter he faced, Kemp once again capitalized with runners in scoring position, just barely managing an infield hit, as a throwing error from Calabretti scored a second run. At the end of the fourth inning, the Gaels led 6-4.
Despite getting baserunners in scoring position in the fifth and sixth innings, Curry kept Iona at bay, managing to not let any runners score. Unfortunately for Seton Hall, the seventh inning was where things started to fall apart.
After loading the bases with no outs, Curry was substituted for graduate pitcher Jordan Marot, who made his seventh appearance of the year. Almost immediately, Iona second baseman J.C. Frias hit a double to clear the bases and extend the lead to 9-4.
Following a hit by pitch, Kemp came up with multiple runners on base for the third time of the game. Looking to extend the lead, he hit a three-run home run to center field to give Iona a 12-4 lead.
Having not scored since the fourth inning, Seton Hall struggled to get anything going on offense late in the game, with Gialloreto completing seven full innings before getting relieved. Similar to their game against Wagner on March 18, the Pirates suffered a late-game collapse as the Gaels scored six runs in the seventh inning to win 12-7. Iona starting pitcher Gialloreto recorded his second win of the year, while Seton Hall’s Reich went to 0-4.
For the Gaels, Kemp drove in more runs than the entire Pirates offense, going 5-for-6 with six RBIs, including his three-run home run. Iona also recorded a season-high 20 hits, surpassing their previous high of 16 against Fairleigh Dickinson earlier in the month.
The Pirates currently stand at 9–14 overall after a 5-4 victory and a 3-5 loss in the final two games of the three-game series against Iona. They will face Hofstra in Hempstead, New York, on Tuesday, March 25.
John Misiewicz writes for The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at john.misiewicz@student.shu.edu.
