Baseball Drops Rubber Match to Rutgers, 9-6
3/24/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BOX SCORE (.html)
BOX SCORE (.pdf)
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Seton Hall University baseball team dropped the rubber match of its three-game series with Rutgers University, 9-6, on Saturday afternoon at Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, N.J.
The Pirates were ultimately doomed by a big Scarlet Knight second inning, when Rutgers brought six runs across the plate, but only four of them were earned, and Seton Hall never managed to come all the way back.
SHU was off to a nice start, scoring once in the bottom of the first to grab an early 1-0 lead. Sophomore third baseman Chris Selden (Allenhurst, N.J.) led off the inning with a bunt single and reached second on a wild throw by Scarlet Knight third baseman Patrick Kivlehan.
Junior Mike Genovese (Livingston, N.J.) sacrificed Seldon over to third and junior Giuseppe Papaccio (Nutley, N.J.) drove him home with an RBI groundout to short.
Rutgers (11-10, 2-1) did the bulk of its damage offensively in the top of the second. After SHU starter Jose Lopez (Cranbury, N.J.) fanned Charlie Law to start the inning, Bill Hoermann reached on a Selden throwing error and the next three Scarlet Knight hitters all reached base, with leadoff man Brian O'Grady delivering a three-RBI triple off the top of the fence in right field.
Lopez came back to strike out Nick Favatella, but gave up another base hit before Kivlehan sent a two-run home run to left-center field.
Junior Ryan Harvey (Manalapan, N.J.) relieved Lopez to start the third inning and threw four effective innings as the Pirates tried to get back in the game. He allowed two runs on just three hits with seven strikeouts.
After scoring runs in the bottom of the second and fourth innings, the Pirates hung two runs on the board in the seventh and another in the eighth to cut the Scarlet Knight lead to just two, 8-6, heading into the ninth.
Senior Will Walsh (New Milford, N.J.) came up with the big hit in the seventh, smoking a triple to straight-away center field to score freshman Sal Annunziata (Bronx, N.Y.) and senior Dale Anderson (Alberta, Canada).
Annunziata had the big hit in the eighth, a two-out single to right field that scored Genovese from second base, but Rutgers managed to get out of the inning and score once more in the top of the ninth to cement the victory.
The Scarlet Knights used seven pitchers in the game, with middle reliever Charlie Lasky coming away with the win after giving up one earned run in 2.2 innings with three strikeouts. Law came in to pitch the ninth and earned his first save of the season.
Genovese and Annunziata both finished the day batting 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. Walsh was 1-for-3 with the two-RBI triple in the seventh.
Seton Hall (10-12, 1-2) returns to action on Tuesday, March 27, when its heads to Lawrenceville, N.J., to face Rider. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
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