The Seton Hall baseball team got their record back to .500 on the season after defeating Monmouth twice during the week.
The Pirates won the second game at home, 4-2, on Wednesday to bring their record to 19-19 overall and 6-9 in conference.
"It's good to get a good solid week under our belt playing good solid baseball," head coach Rob Sheppard said. "We scored a bunch of runs and need to carry it into the weekend."
Sophomore Frank Morris started on the mound for the Hall and recorded three strikeouts while giving up a walk and a hit in five scoreless innings of work. Morris left the game with the Pirates holding a 4-0 lead.
"It was good to comeback today and throw some zeros," Sheppard said.
The Hall got the scoring started in the second inning with sophomore Ryan Sullivan driving in sophomore Giuseppe Papaccio with a single up the middle. Papaccio reached base after drawing a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from sophomore Mike Genovese.
The Pirates doubled their lead to 2-0 in the following inning, with Papaccio scoring again. This time Papaccio reached base with a single up the middle before stealing second base and being brought in by Sullivan with a single to right center.
In the fifth inning, Papaccio singled to left center which was followed by a Genovese single through the left side, putting runners on first and second. Morris brought in the final two runs for the Hall with a double down the left field line, making the score 4-0.
The Hawks scored two runs in the ninth inning and left runners stranded on third as junior Will Walsh caught a falling line drive in right field.
Papaccio scored three of the Pirates four runs while going 2-for-3 at the plate. Sullivan and senior Frank Esposito both went 2-for-4 with two RBI's against Monmouth.
The Pirates defeated Monmouth in 11 innings on Tuesday, 10-9. The victory snapped the Hawks 15-game win streak.
The Hall took the lead in the top of the first inning with back-to-back RBI hits from senior Sean Gusrang and Papaccio. In the fourth inning, the Pirates added three more runs making the score 5-0, before the Hawks score four runs in the inning.
Monmouth scored another four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning before adding one more in the sixth inning to give them a 9-5 lead.
Down four runs entering the eighth inning, the Pirates would score three runs in the eighth and score the tying run in the ninth inning with a RBI single from Gusrang.
"Getting an opportunity to comeback late in the game will give us more confidence in later games," Sheppard said.
The Pirates would score the winning run in the 11th inning with a sacrifice fly by senior A.J. Rusbarsky, scoring freshman Zack Granite.
Rusbarsky and Gusrang each recorded three hits in the game and combined for four runs scored.
Over the weekend against Big East foe West Virginia, the Hall lost the road series 2-1. In the third and decisive game on Saturday, the Pirates fell 3-2 after jumping out to a 2-0 lead before allowing three runs in the third inning.
The first two games were split, with the Pirates winning the second game 5-3 after losing the first game 6-3.
The Pirates next travel to South Bend, Ind. to play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish with the series starting on Friday at 6:35 p.m.
Stephen Valenti can be reached at stephen.valenti@student.shu.edu
