Baseball Drops Second Game of Doubleheader with Rutgers, 10-2
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 second game of its BIG EAST opening doubleheader against Rutgers University, 10-2, on Friday night at Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, N.J.
The Scarlet Knights (10-10, 1-1) got off to a hot start offensively, scoring four runs in the first two innings and jumping out to a 5-0 lead before Seton Hall hung a run on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth.
SHU (10-11, 1-1) starter Rick Mangione (Orange, Conn.) found trouble in both the first and second innings, giving up four earned runs on three hits with four walks and a couple of strikeouts.
The Pirates had several early opportunities but were unable to capitalize, stranding three runners on base in the first inning and leaving 15 on base in the game.
Sophomore Chris Selden (Allenhurst, N.J.) led off the bottom of the first with a bunt single and the bases were loaded with one out when Will Walsh (New Milford, N.J.) recorded an infield single to second and senior Dale Anderson (Alberta, Canada) was hit by a pitch.
Rutgers' starter Rob Smorol escaped the jam, striking out freshman designated hitter Kyle Grimm (Bergenfield, N.J.) and getting junior Giuseppe Papaccio (Nutley, N.J.) to foul out to the second baseman.
The Pirates scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the sixth. Anderson drew a leadoff walk and came all the way home on a Papaccio RBI-triple into the gap in left-center field.
Rutgers answered the SHU run with one of their own to start the seventh and put the game out of reach with a four-run eighth inning to make the score 10-1.
Senior Benny Mejia (Paterson, N.J.) came in to pitch for The Hall to start the third inning and ended up throwing 4.2 innings of effective long relief. He gave up just a pair of runs on four hits, fanning five batters in the process.
Papaccio finished 2-for-4 at the plate, adding a double to make it two extra-base hits for him in the game. Freshman catcher Alex Falconi (Freeport, N.Y.) also had a multi-hit game, going 2-for-5 with an RBI. Smorol earned the win for Rutgers, improving to 3-2 on the year.
Seton Hall returns to action on Saturday, March 24, for game-three of the series with the Scarlet Knights at Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, N.J. Because of the threat of inclement weather later in the day, first pitch for that contest has been moved up by one hour to 12 p.m.
| FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! | LIKE US ON FACEBOOK |
