Baseball Tops Virginia Tech 5-0 to Earn Spot in BIG EAST Final
5/18/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 18, 2001
BRIDGEWATER, NJ - Seton Hall received a strong pitching performance for the second straight game as senior Shawn Tarkington (Peekskill, NY) hurled eight shutout innings to lead the Pirates past Virginia Tech 5-0 in the second round of the BIG EAST Championship at Commerce Bank Ballpark.
Seton Hall (31-21-1) advances to the championship game where it will face Virginia Tech (29-27-1) again. The Hokies came back to beat Notre Dame, 5-2, in the losers' bracket, eliminating the top-seeded Fighting Irish from the tournament. The Pirates, who advanced to the final through the winners' bracket, will need to win once while Virginia Tech will need two victories to claim the BIG EAST title. The first game in the championship round will begin at 3:30 p.m. If a second game is necessary, it will follow at 7 p.m.
After getting a stellar performance from senior B.J. Benik on Thursday night against Rutgers, the Pirates received solid outing from Tarkington who gave up five hits while striking out six. He struggled through the early innings as he walked the leadoff man twice in each of the first two innings. In the top of the first inning, the Hokies had runners on first and third with two out, but Tarkington struck out Jed English looking to retire the side.
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech starter Ian Ostlund cruised through the first five innings, giving up just three hits.
Virginia Tech mounted a serious threat in the top of the sixth. After Tarkington issued a leadoff walk to John West, Addison Bowman singled to leftfield to put runners on first and second. Jed English successfully executed a sacrifice bunt, moving both runners into scoring position. Christian Summers then grounded to third and Pirate third baseman Joe Scott cut down West at the plate, preserving the scoreless tie. Tarkington then got Marc Tugwell to ground out to second to end the inning.
After six scoreless innings, Seton Hall finally broke the deadlock in the seventh. The Pirates loaded the bases with no outs as catcher Adam Arslanian (Fair Lawn, NJ) reached on an error, designated hitter Kevin Leighton (Brewster, NY) walked and second baseman Josh Schuck (Edison, NJ) beat out a sacrifice bunt. Joe Scott then grounded to third baseman Addison Bowman who threw home to force out Arslanian. Ostlund then forced in Leighton with the first run when he issued a walk to shortstop Chris Carter (Fair Haven, NJ). Rightfielder Joe Cuervo (Warren, NJ) plated Schuck with a sacrifice fly to right. Centerfielder Mike Bascom (Ocean Township, NJ) and leftfielder Casey Grimm (Morristown, NJ) followed with RBI singles as the Pirates opened up a 4-0 lead. Bascom came home on an error with the final run.
Tarkington held Virginia Tech scoreless in the eighth and closer Isaac Pavlik worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the ninth to preserve the shutout.
Grimm, who went 3-for-4 had three of the Pirates' eight hits. Chris Carter and Joe Cuervo both had doubles. Addison Bowman (2-for-4) had a pair of singles for the Hokies.
