Louisville Hands Baseball a 7-3 Loss

Casey Hines

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Seton Hall baseball team (17-33; 7-19 BE) fell to Louisville (27-28; 16-10 BE), 7-3 on Friday evening at Jim Patterson Stadium. Despite rallying for three runs in the top of the eighth to take a 3-2 lead, Louisville scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning for the victory, and handed Seton Hall the loss. Casey Hines (West Milford, N.J.) blasted a homerun in the eighth inning that drove in two runs.

Louisville broke into the scoring in the bottom of the first inning. After Nick Haley singled to start off the inning, he scored on a one-out Logan Johnson double to deep right center field. The Cardinals added another run in the second. Derrick Alfonso reached base after being hit by a pitch, and a bunt single by Daniel Burton moved Alfonso to second. A sacrifice bunt moved Burton and Alfonso to second and third and a fly out to left field by Haley scored Alfonso. However, the inning ended on a Burton pickoff at second base on the same play, with Burton picked off left field to third to second.

The Pirates scored three runs in the top of the eighth to take a 3-2 lead. Robbie Hine (Brick, N.J.) led off the inning with a single to right field and was brought home on a Hines homerun blast to right field. After two groundouts, Dan Lopez (Weehawken, N.J.) blasted a double to right field. With two outs, Matt Smedberg (Rockaway, N.J.) smoked a double down the right field line to drive in Lopez and give Seton Hall a 3-2 lead.

In the bottom of the eighth Louisville scored five runs to take a 7-3 lead over the Pirates. Jorge Castillo smoked a solo homerun over the right field fence and tied the game at three to lead off the inning. Isaiah Howes followed Castillo’s homerun with a base-on-balls and stole second. Pete Rodriguez reached base on a throwing error and moved Castillo to third to put runners at the corners with one out. The next at-bat, a base-on-balls for Alfonso, loaded the bases for the Cardinals. A single to left field by Burton scored Howes and Rodriguez and gave Louisville a 5-3 lead. The Cardinals executed a hit and run with runners at first and second on an Alec Lowrey single through the right side to score Alfonso. Haley followed Lowrey’s single with a bunt single squeeze play that scored Burton from third for a 7-3 lead. A fielder’s choice moved Lowrey to third for the second out. Pirate pitcher Scott Fisher (Toms River, N.J.) came in for relief and struck out the next batter for the final out of the inning.

Louisville’s David Torcise (3-4) earned the win, while Seton Hall’s Dan McDonald (1-10) (Rockaway, N.J.) was credited with the loss.

Seton Hall will face Louisville in the Pirates final game of the 2006 season on Saturday, May 20, at Jim Patterson Stadium. First pitch is set for 1:00 p.m.

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