Baseball Tops South Alabama 8-7 to Earn Berth in First Regional Final Since 1984

May 26, 2001

CLEMSON, S.C. - Sophomore right-hander Chris Reilly (Bound Brook, NJ) pitched 7.2 strong innings, striking out a career-high eight batters to lead Seton Hall past South Alabama, 8-7 in the NCAA Division I Baseball Regional at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Seton Hall (34-22-1) advances to the championship round of the Clemson Regional where it will face host Clemson (40-20). The Pirates, who advanced through the losers' bracket, must beat the Tigers twice to win the regional championship. Seton Hall was last in a regional final in 1984 when it lost to Maine 5-2. That was also the last time a Pirate team won two games in NCAA Tournament play.

The Pirates defeated top-seeded South Alabama (45-19) for the second time in as many days. Seton Hall opened the tournament with a 7-2 victory over the Jaguars on Friday.

Reilly, who improved to 7-1, gave up eight hits and four earned runs in his longest outing of the year. He departed after striking out Josh Touchstone for the second out in the eighth inning.

Seton Hall erased an early 1-0 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the second inning. Senior designated hitter Kevin Leighton (Brewster, NY), who drew a one-out walk, scored on an error after a double by junior second baseman Josh Schuck (Edison, NJ) to tie the game at 1-1. Junior shortstop Chris Carter (Fair Haven, NJ) then plated Schuck with a single to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead. Junior centerfielder Mike Bascom (Ocean Township, NJ) and senior first baseman Brian Leighton (Brewster, NY) contributed two-out RBI singles as Seton Hall built a 4-1 lead.

South Alabama answered with two runs in the top of the third inning to cut the lead to 4-3. Tim Merritt had an RBI groundout while Nick Gretz added a run-scoring single.

The Pirates countered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning. Seton Hall loaded the bases to open the bottom of the third as senior catcher Adam Arslanian (Fair Lawn, NJ) walked, Kevin Leighton reached on a fielder's choice and Schuck beat out a sacrifice bunt. Arslanian came home on a double play while Leighton scored on Carter's single up the middle, giving the Pirates a 6-3 lead.

South Alabama closed to within 6-5 when Brandon Davis and Warren Hanna scored on Tony Piccotti's two-out double that Joe Cuervo lost in the Kingsmore Stadium lights.

The Pirates added a pair of key insurance runs in the late innings. Kevin Leighton, who doubled in the seventh, came home on Joe Scott's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh. Cuervo, who singled to lead off the eighth, scored what turned out to be the eventual winning run on an error, giving Seton Hall an 8-5 lead heading into the ninth.

The Jaguars did not go quietly in the last inning against Pirate closer Isaac Pavlik. Erik Smallwood singled, Tim Merritt walked and Nick Gretz singled to load the bases with no outs. Smallwood came home with the first run on Ryan Mulhern's fielder's choice groundout. Pinch hitter Kyle Stanky then grounded back to Pavlik, who caught Merritt off third base for the second out. Warren Hanna's bloop single to rightfield scored Mulhern to bring South Alabama within 8-7. But Pavlik got pinch hitter Shane Scoville to fly out to right to preserve the win.

Cuervo went 3-for-4 and scored two runs to lead the Pirates to the victory. Kevin Leighton went 1-for-3 and scored three runs.

Earlier in the day, Seton Hall dropped into the losers' bracket following a humbling 24-4 loss to Clemson. The Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first on a three-run homer by first baseman Michael Johnson. Ryan Riley belted a solo homer while Kyle Frank added a two-run homer as Clemson broke the game open with a six-run third inning.

Seton Hall scored three of its four runs in the bottom of the fifth on Cuervo's team-leading sixth home run of the season.