Baseball Snaps Losing Streak With, 10-2, Win Over NYIT

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Freshman starter Henry Warner (Gladstone, N.J.) (1-2) picked up his first collegiate win striking out six batters over seven innings of work and yielding only two runs, while senior Chris Affinito (East Brunswick, N.J.) drove home five runs and scored another as the Pirates defeated NYIT, 10-2, Tuesday afternoon at Owen T. Carroll Field. With the win, the Pirates snapped their seven-game losing streak.

In the bottom of the first inning, Seton Hall (16-19) took an early, 1-0, lead when sophomore Sean Gusrang (Burlington, N.J.) hit an RBI single to right field scoring freshman Ed Brown (Edison, N.J.) from third base.

They added to the lead in the bottom of the second inning, when junior Michael Rogers (Portland, Ore.) followed a two-out double by freshman Bobby Migliazza (Stamford, Conn.) with an RBI infield single.

After Warner worked out of a two-on-one-out jam forcing Christian Dienna to fly out to left field and Greg Gilroy to ground out to second base in the top of the third, the Pirates followed with a lead-off triple by senior Matt Smedberg (Rockaway, N.J.) and RBI infield singles by Affinito and Migliazza.

Trailing, 5-0, in the visiting half of the fourth inning, the Bears (12-21) cut the deficit to three with a bases-loaded RBI groundout by Chris Ruffler and a sacrifice-fly by Brian Smith.  However, the Pirates came right back with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI base hit by Gusrang and a three-run home run by Affinito over the batters-eye in center field for his team leading sixth of the season.

The Pirates final run came in the bottom of the eighth when Affinito was hit by a full count pitch with bases loaded.

Brown, Smedberg, Gusrang, Affinito, and Migliazza each finished the day with two hits.  Gusrang scored two runs and drove in two more while drawing two walks, and Smedberg also added two walks and two runs scored.

Bears starter Louie Benardi (3-1) suffered the loss allowing eight earned runs on 11 hits in 3.2 innings of work.

The Pirates return to action tomorrow afternoon when they travel to Monmouth.  First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.