Baseball Falls To William & Mary, 6-4
3/6/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Box Score (html)
WILLIAMSBURG, VA. - The Seton Hall baseball team could not hold on to a, 4-1, lead as they allowed five unanswered runs in the seventh and eighth innings to lose to William & Mary, 6-4, Saturday afternoon at Plumeri Park. The loss snapped the Pirates two-game winning streak. Despite the loss, Pirates' starter Benny Mejia (Paterson, N.J.) allowed only two earned runs while striking out six batters in 6.2 innings of work, yet received his third no-decision of the season.
Trailing, 4-3, in the bottom of the eighth inning, William & Mary's catcher Chris Forsten drove home Derrick Osteen, who singled to lead off the inning, with a double. Next batter, Stephen Arcure plated Forsten with a single, and came around to score the third run of the inning when Chris Jensen reached on a throwing error. Junior A.J. Rusbarsky (Freehold, N.J.) fielded the ground ball off Jensen's bat in the hole between third base and shortstop, however, as hit throw was going wide and first baseman Chris Spagnuolo (Tabernacle, N.J.) was about to place the tag on the running Jensen, the ball was kicked out of his glove allowing Arcure to come around third base and safely score.
With William & Mary (4-4) clinging to a, 1-0, lead entering the top of the sixth inning, Pirates red-shirt senior Chris Fontenelli (Toms River, N.J.) reached first base on a throwing error by Tribe third baseman Ryan Williams and advanced to second on a successful sacrifice-bunt by freshman Nick Ammirati (Sparta, N.J.). After red-shirt junior Bobby Abreu (Piscataway, N.J.) and Rusbarsky drew walks to load the bases, senior Michael Rogers (Portland, Ore.) ripped a two-strike pitch into right-center field scoring Fontenelli and Abreu for a, 2-1, Pirate advantage.
The Hall (2-6) would add two more insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning when Abreu and Rusbarsky had back-to-back two-out run-scoring base hits.
Sophomore Bobby Migliazza (Stamford, Conn.) led off the frame with a single and with two-outs stole second base to put himself in scoring position. Abreu drove in Migliazza with a single to center field and scored a run of his own on a double down the left field line by Rusbarsky.
The Tribe cut the deficit to one in the bottom half of the seventh with two-out RBI doubles by Jensen and Derek Lowe.
Sophomore Henry Warner (Gladstone, N.J.) (0-2) suffered the loss after allowing two runs on three hits in 0.2 innings of work. Tyler Truxell (1-0) picked up the win with a perfect inning in relief.
Rusbarsky led all Seton Hall hitters with two hits, a walk, and an RBI. Abreu led the way with two runs scored and Rogers had two RBI.
The Pirates and the Tribe will complete the three-game series Sunday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
