Baseball Drops Opener To West Virginia, 6-3

Box Score (html)
Box Score (pdf)

MORGANTOWN, W.VA - The Seton Hall baseball team dropped their series-opening game at West Virginia, 6-3, Thursday evening at Hawley Field.

Trailing, 4-1, entering the top of the seventh inning, the Pirates looked to begin a comeback with patience at the plate and shaky defense by the Mountaineers.

Ryan Sullivan (Stony Point, N.Y.) led off the inning with a walk and came around to score the team's second run on a bunt single by Zack Granite (Staten Island, N.Y.) and a throwing error on West Virginia starting pitcher Harrison Musgrave.  Granite laid the bunt down between the left-handed pitcher and third baseman Justin McDavid.  As Musgrave picked the ball up, his throw to first baseman Ryan McBroom sailed into right field allowing Sullivan to score and Granite to reach third base.  A.J. Rusbarsky (Freehold, N.J.) followed by pulling the next pitch into left field scoring Granite and cutting their deficit to, 4-3.

The Mountaineers, however came back with an RBI single by Grant Buckner in the bottom of the seventh and a sacrifice fly by McDavid in the eighth for the, 6-3, lead.

After a scoreless inning-and-a-half to begin the game, the teams traded scoring frames with the Pirates sandwiching a run in between two two-run innings by the Mountaineers.

Buckner started the scoring with his sixth home run of the season in the bottom of the second and Mark Dvoroznak followed three-straight singles with a run-scoring base hit of his own. 

Sean Gusrang (Burlington, N.J.) cut the Pirates deficit in half with a sacrifice fly to center field scoring Granite, but the Mountaineers took back control in the bottom of the third when McBroom hit an RBI single and pinch-hitter Chris Rasky flew out into a sacrifice fly.

Greg Terhune (Washington, N.J.) (3-4) took the loss lasting two-plus innings surrendering four runs on eight hits.  Musgrave (4-2) picked up the win by allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits in seven innings of work.

Pirates' reliever Brian Gilbert (Toms River, N.J.) had a strong outing yielding only one run on four hits while striking out two batters in 4.1 innings of relief of Terhune.  The right-hander from entered in the bottom of the third with bases loaded and no outs surrendering a base hit before inducing three-straight fly ball outs to end the inning.

Granite and Rusbarsky led the Pirates offensively with two hits apiece.  The freshman from Staten Island also ended with two runs scored.

The Pirates and Mountaineers return to action tomorrow evening for game two.  First pitch is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.