Baseball Completes 2006 Season With 18-6 Loss to Louisville

Brandon Cohen

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Seton Hall baseball team fell to Louisville, 18-6, on Saturday afternoon at Jim Patterson Stadium in its final game of the 2006 season. The Pirates end their season with a 17-34 overall record and a 7-20 mark in BIG EAST play. Louisville improves 28-28 overall and 17-10 in the BIG EAST. Seton Hall senior Brandon Cohen (River Edge, N.J.) tallied two hits, two runs, two RBI, and blasted his eighth homerun of the season. Mike Morano (Basking Ridge, N.J.) tallied two hits one run and one RBI.

Seton Hall was out-hit 15-11, while Louisville stranded 10 runners on base compared to the Pirates eight.

Seton Hall threatened to score in the fourth inning. Cohen led off the inning with a hit-by-pitch. Robbie Hine (Brick, N.J.) reached base on a fielder’s choice that put Cohen out at second. Hine moved around to third on a stolen base and a throwing error by the Cardinals’ catcher. Casey Hines (West Milford, N.J.) was hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners. However, the inning ended on a Bobby Dombrowski (Denville, N.J.) fielder’s choice play. Hine was thrown out third base to the catcher in a rundown, and Hines was thrown out from the catcher to the third baseman at third after the rundown for the third out of the inning.

Louisville scored two runs in the bottom of the second. Derrick Alfonso led off the inning with a walk, and scored on an Isaiah Howes double to deep left center field. After the next batter struck out, and Howes stole third, Daniel Burton flew out to center field and drove in Howes for the second run of the inning.

The Pirates again had runners in scoring position in the third inning. With two outs, Matt Smedberg (Rockaway, N.J.) drew a base-on-balls. Smedberg moved to third on a single by Dan McDonald (Rockaway, N.J.). However the inning ended on a ground-out.

Seton Hall capitalized on a scoring opportunity in the fourth. Cohen led off the inning with a single to right field. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and to the third on a groundout. With two outs, Mike Morano (Basking Ridge, N.J.) smoked a double down the right line and drove in Cohen to cut the Cardinals lead to 2-1.

The Cardinals added five runs in the fourth inning. After Alfonso led off the inning with a walk, he moved to third on a double by Howes. Pete Rodriguez drove in Alfonso on single to left field and moved Howes to third. Burton flew out to left field for a sacrifice fly that drove in Howes. Rodriguez stole both second and third and scored on a Alec Lowrey sacrifice fly. Nick Haley followed the sacrifice fly with an infield single, and moved to second after Chris Cates base-on-balls. Haley and Cates gave Louisville a 7-1 lead after scoring on a Logan Johnson double down the right field line.

Louisville added to its lead in the fifth inning. With one out, Howes hit a double down the left field line. Rodriguez put runners at first and second after drawing a walk. A Burton double to left field scored Howes for a Cardinals 8-1 lead. Lowrey loaded the bases with a walk and just one out. A two run single by Haley drove in Rodriguez and Burton and moved Lowrey to third and gave the Cardinals a 10-1 lead. Cates drove in Lowrey on a fielders choice that put Haley out at second for the second out of the inning.

In the sixth inning, freshman Tim McCann (Manasquan, N.J.) blasted a solo homerun for the Pirates second run of the game.

Louisville loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth inning on three consecutive walks on Kyle Cardon, Michael Urti, and Howes. A strikeout gave the Pirates the first out of the inning. Burton flew out to left field for his third sacrifice fly of the game that drove in Cardon for a 12-2 lead.

The Pirates added a four runs in the seventh inning. Morano led off the inning with a walk, and was driven home on a Mark Pappas (Ocean Township, N.J.) double down the left field line. Smedberg followed Pappas’ double with a walk to put runners at first and second. After a fly out, Will Courter (Roseland, N.J.) drove in Pappas with a single to right field, to cut Louisville’s lead to 12-4, but Smedberg was thrown out from right field to first to third. Cohen smoked a two run homerun over the right field fence to drive in Courter. Robbie Hine (Brick, N.J.) kept the rally going with a single to right field, but a fielder’s choice on the next at-bat ended the Pirates rally with Louisville in the lead 12-6.

Louisville led off the seventh inning with a Haley base-on-balls. Haley moved to third on a Cates single to deep center field and scored on a Johnson sacrifice fly right field to increase Louisville’s lead to 13-6. Carden hit a single to center field that advanced Cates to second. Urti loaded the bases with one out after he was hit by a pitch. Howes followed Urti’s hit by pitch with one of his own to drive in Cates for a 14-6 lead. After a strikeout for the second out, Burton hit a two-out RBI single to left field to score Cardon for a 15-6 lead. A fielding error on a Tyler Christensen at-bat drove in Urti for a 16-6 lead. The Pirates forced the final out of the inning with a fly out to center field.

The Cardinals added two runs in the eighth inning. Cates led off the inning with a single through the left side. With one out, Cardon hit a single to center field and moved Cates to third. A Urti double to right center field drove in Cates and Cardon and increased the Cardinal lead to 18-6. The Pirates struck out the next two batters to end the inning.

Seton Hall’s 2006 season is complete. The Pirates graduate just two seniors: Cohen and Mark Irwin (North Haledon, N.J.) and will return 34 players to the 2007 squad.

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