Baseball Falls to Virginia Commonwealth, 8-3

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Richmond, Va.   The Seton Hall baseball team took a, 3-0, lead into the sixth inning, however allowed seven runs in the bottom half of the frame as they were defeated by Virginia Commonwealth, 8-3, Friday afternoon in Richmond, Va. With the loss, the Pirates fall to 1-3 on the season.

Seton Hall broke the scoreless tie in the top of the third inning.  With one-out, junior Tim McCann (Manasquan, N.J.) on third base and freshman A.J. Rusbarsky (Freehold, N.J.) standing on first base, freshman Bobby Abreu (Piscataway, N.J.) executed a sacrifice bunt to the third base side scoring McCann to give the Pirates a, 1-0, lead.  McCann reached base on an infield single and was successfully sacrificed to second base on a bunt by sophomore Michael Rogers (Portland, Ore.).  Rusbarsky moved McCann to third base on a single.

Seton Hall expanded on that lead in the top of the fifth inning with RBI singles by Rusbarsky and senior Dan Lopez (Weehawken, N.J.).  McCann, who lead off the inning with a single, scored on Rusbarsky’s base hit, while Rusbarsky came around to score when Lopez singled to pull ahead, 3-0.

With the Pirates ahead in the bottom of the sixth inning, Virginia Commonwealth (1-3) got an RBI single by sophomore Richard Gonzalez to cut the lead to 3-1.  With runners on first and third, junior Jared Boldin ripped an RBI triple to left field scoring senior Kwan Evans and Gonzalez to tie the game at three.  Boldin would come around to score the go-ahead run on a single by junior Chris Jackson. 

The Rams picked up their insurance runs when freshman Joe Van Meter ripped a two-run single up the middle scoring Jackson and junior R.J. Schenk, who reached base on a hit-by-pitch.  The final run of the inning came around to score when junior Chris McGlynn (Rockaway, N.J.) balked bringing Van Meter in from third base. 

The Rams final run was plated on a sacrifice fly by Boldin to give Virginia Commonwealth the, 8-3, lead.

Rusbarsky finished the game 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, while Lopez had two hits and an RBI, and McCann had two hits and two runs scored to lead the Pirates.  For the Rams, Bolden finished with two hits and three RBI’s.

Junior Corey Young (Shrewsbury, N.J.) (1-1) took the loss after allowing seven earned runs on eight hits in 5.2 innings of work, striking out seven.  Codey Eppley (1-1) earned the victory tossing six innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits, striking out five.

The Pirates will play a doubleheader Saturday afternoon against Richmond.  First pitch of game one is scheduled for noon.