The Seton Hall baseball team struggled to finish strong in Queens on Saturday in game two of their series with Big East rival St. John’s. The Pirates now sit behind the Red Storm at second place in the Big east. Senior Kyle Grimm led the way offensively for the Pirates. Grim led off the top of the second inning with a double that hit down the right field line. Senior Sal Annunziata grounded out to move both runners into scoring position, and another ground out, this time by Tyler Boyd gave the Pirates their first run of the game. A day after the Pirates defense made three errors, their defense let Freshman starting pitcher Shane McCarthy down twice in the bottom of the second. Grimm made a play on a hard hit grounder down the third base line, but ended up throwing high of first base, allowing for St. John's Jarred Mederos to advance to second base. Troy Dixon of St. John’s then followed with a single through the right side to drive in the tying run. With two outs and a runner on second, St. John's Michael Donadio had a hard hit that ricocheted off McCarthy to Junior Chris Chiaradio, but the second baseman misfielded the ball, allowing Dixon to score with the go-ahead run, making it a 2-1 game. In the third inning, McCarthy came into trouble again. After a single and double put two St. John's runners in scoring position, Troy Dixon hit a three-run home which gave the Red Storm a 5-1 lead. Now trailing 6-1, Seton Hall cut into the Red Storm lead in the sixth inning. Junior Derek Jenkins walked to lead off and advanced to third on a single by Sophomore Joe Poduslenko. Junior Zack Weigel followed with an RBI to second base, which plated Jenkins. After Grimm walked, Ruhlman delivered a deep fly ball to left field, which was caught, but luckily for the Pirates was deep enough to score Poduslenko and make it a three run game. After another Red Storm run, Seton Hall attempted a two-out rally in the top of the eighth. Grimm walked and Ruhlman doubled to right-center field, letting Grimm advance to third base. Sophomore Mikael-Ali Mogues was hit by the first pitch from St John’s Thomas Hackimer and the bases were loaded. Boyd walked to allow for a run and cut the Seton Hall deficit to 7-4 Seton Hall will wrap up its three-game series with St. John's Sunday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Olivia Mulvihill can be reached at olivia.mulvihill@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @oliviamulvihill.
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