Baseball Drops 5-2 Decision to Pace
4/4/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
- Box Score
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ (April 4, 2001) - Junior centerfielder Mike Bascom had the lone Seton Hall hit as the Pirates fell to Pace University 5-2 in a non-conference game at Owen T. Carroll Field.
to lead Pace University to a 5-2 win over Seton Hall on Wednesday at Owen T. Carroll Field.
Seton Hall (13-14) was held to just one hit by three Pace pitchers. Sophomore left-hander Chris Winter pitched five hitless innings of relief to earn the victory for the Setters.
Pace trailed 2-0 but scored four runs in the top of the fifth inning to take control. Leftfielder Frank Siano drew a leadoff walk off Seton Hall starter B.J. Benik (2-4) to open the inning. Rightfielder Shelby Langford singled through the left side with one out, putting runners on first and second. Catcher Joe Stefania then singled to center and second baseman Jesse Brady doubled to left, tying the game at 2-2. The winning run came across when centerfielder Steve Martino plated Stefania with a suicide squeeze bunt. Brady scored on a two-out fielding error by shortstop Santiago Chi to give the Setters a 4-2 lead.
Pace added an insurance run in the top of the ninth when Langford, who singled to open the inning, later scored on Martino's groundout to second.
Seton Hall loaded the bases with nobody out in both the second and fourth innings, but produced only two runs. In the bottom of the second, Brian Leighton walked while Adam Arslanian and Kevin Leighton were both hit by a pitch to load the bases. Mike Bascom and Kyle Williams both flied out to shallow centerfield. Santiago Chi gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead when he drew a bases-loaded walk off Pace starter John Swiecki.
The Pirates again loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth. Swiecki again hit Arslanian and then walked Kevin Leighton. Bascom beat out a sacrifice bunt for Seton Hall's only hit of the afternoon. Winter then took over for Swiecki and struck out Williams and Chi. He got Joe Cuervo to fly out to leftfield to end the inning. Arslanian came home on Winter's wild pitch to Chi, giving Seton Hall a 2-0 lead.
Winter allowed only two baserunners over the next four innings. Casey Grimm was hit by a pitch and Arslanian reached on an error. Shelby Langford retired the side in order in the ninth to earn his fifth save.
Despite picking up the loss, Seton Hall starter B.J. Benik turned in a solid effort. He struck out six and gave up just four hits and three earned runs in six innings.
The Pirates return to action on Thursday, April 5 when they travel to Hempstead, New York for a 3:30 p.m. game against Hofstra.
