Baseball Defeated by Cincinnati, 5-1

Greg Miller

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J.— The Seton Hall baseball team (8-19; 2-8 BE) was defeated by BIG EAST opponent Cincinnati, 5-1 on Friday afternoon at Owen T. Carroll field. Freshman Greg Miller (Shamong, N.J.) was 1-for-3 with one run scored. Neither team generated much offense, as Seton Hall was out-hit six to five. The Pirates stranded eight runners on base compared to Cincinnati’s seven.

The Bearcats (18-10; 4-3) scored three runs in the second inning to take the lead. After Jon DeLuca, Adam Yeager, and Brian Szarmach led off the inning with three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs, Nick Maragas blasted a base clearing double to put Cincinnati up, 3-0. Seton Hall’s Dan Merklinger (West Orange, N.J.) pitched himself out of inning, striking out three of the next four batters.

Seton Hall put runners in scoring position in the bottom of the second, but couldn’t capitalize. With one out, Brandon Cohen (River Edge, N.J.) singled through the left side and moved to second on a passed ball. Junior Casey Hines (West Milford, N.J.) drew a base-on-balls to put runners on first and second. A fielder’s choice by Miller moved Cohen to third, but a strikeout ended the inning with runners at first and third.

In the seventh, Cincinnati started off the inning with Maragas and LaFringe Hayes drawing walks to put runners at second and first. After Pirate Louie Fernandez (Union, N.J.) relieved Merklinger, he struck out the next batter and forced a ground-out for the second out of the inning. With runners at second and third, a single by Jack Nelson scored Maragas and moved Hayes to third, who then scored on an error to put Cincinnati up 5-0.

The Pirates scored their lone run of the game in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Miller singled to right field and advanced to second after an Affinito walk. Dan Lopez (Weehawken, N.J.) smoked an RBI single to right field to score Miller and moved Affinito to third to score the lone Pirate run of the game and make the final score 5-1.

Cincinnati’s Steve Blevins (5-3) earned the win, where he struck out five batters and gave up just one run on four hits in 6.2 innings pitched. Seton Hall’s Merklinger (3-5) was credited with the loss, where he struck out 10 batters in 6.0 innings pitched and gave up five runs on four hits.

The Pirates will host BIG EAST opponent Cincinnati on Saturday, Apr. 8, at 1:00 p.m. on Owen T. Carroll field. The game is the second of a three-game series.
R H E
Cincinnati 030 000 200 - 5 6 0
Seton Hall 000 000 100 - 1 5 1

WP – Blevins (5-3)
LP – Merklinger (3-5)
Save – None

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