The Seton Hall Pirate baseball team defeated the Xavier Bulldogs, 6-3, away Friday at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio, its fifth in-conference game of the season.
After falling to Xavier 6-2 on Thursday, April 13, Seton Hall rallied back against its Big East opponent and picked up a valuable conference victory, improving its conference record to 2-3. The teams played through three innings before Xavier snapped the scoreless tie. With the bases loaded, Chris Givin singled to right field, sending Matt Fallon home for a 1-0 lead. Despite having runners on all bases, Seton Hall pitcher Zach Prendergast maintained his cool and got the final out of the inning, setting the Pirates up nicely to retie the game in the fourth.
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Photo via SHU Athletics[/caption]
In the top of the fourth, Seton Hall’s Al Molina doubled and then advanced to third on a throwing error by Xavier pitcher Trey Schramm. Not much later, another Xavier error advanced Matt Toke to second and sent Molina home for an unearned run to tie the game, 1-1. However, in the bottom of the fourth, the Bulldogs bounced back when Matt Fallon hit a two-run homer out of the park, driving home Ethan Schmidt for a 3-1 lead. It was at this point that the Pirates took Prendergast off the mound and replaced him with Zach Schellenger to keep the Bulldogs at bay.
The teams played evenly for the next five innings, with no more scoring until the Pirates came to the plate in the top of the ninth and mounted their relentless comeback. With Toke and Connor Hood on base, Matt Fortin got the comeback effort started for the Pirates, doubling to left field and sending both runners home, tying the game 3-3. Then, Ryan Ramiz came to the plate and singled to left field, driving in Fortin for the Pirates’ first lead of the contest, 4-3. For insurance, Tyler Shedler-McAvoy came to the plate with Ramiz on base and crushed a homerun out of the park, making the score 6-3 for the victory.
Ryan Testani came in to close the game in the bottom of the ninth and got the save for the Pirates, striking out two hitters and forcing a fly-out to secure the win for Seton Hall. This win moved the Pirates’ record to 16-15 on the season as they finish their season series against Xavier on Saturday, April 15 in games on three consecutive days.
Bob Towey can be reached at robert.towey@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @BobTowey5.
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