Baseball Blanks Manhattan 3-0 in 2012 Home Opener
3/7/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BOX SCORE (.html)
BOX SCORE (.pdf)
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Five pitchers combined to throw nine innings of shutout ball as the Seton Hall University baseball team blanked Manhattan College, 3-0, in its 2012 home opener on Wednesday afternoon at Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, N.J.
Senior Henry Warner (Gladstone, N.J.) received the start for Seton Hall, giving up just a pair of hits with three strikeouts over four innings of work to pick up his first win of the year.
Sophomore Brian Gilbert (Toms River, N.J.) relieved Warner heading into the fifth and submitted a line of two innings pitched with just one hit allowed and a strikeout.
Junior Ed Ras (Millstone TWP, N.J.), senior Benny Mejia (Paterson, N.J.) and junior Ryan Harvey (Manalapan, N.J.) threw the final three frames to preserve the shutout. Harvey faced four batters in a perfect ninth to come away with his second save of the season.
The SHU staff combined to give up just three hits to go along with eight strikeouts and did not allow a Manhattan base runner to advance past second for the entire game.
The Pirate offense manufactured runs in the third, sixth and eighth innings to account for the 3-0 final. Freshman catcher Tyler Boyd (Succasunna, N.J.) led off the third with a base hit into right field, and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from senior first baseman Michael Betz (Mine-Hill, N.J.).
Junior Mike Genovese (Livingston, N.J.) provided the first RBI of the game, scoring Boyd from third base with a sacrifice fly to right field.
The second run of the game came in a remarkably similar manner. This time senior Dale Anderson (Alberta, Canada) led off the inning with a base hit, and freshman Kyle Grimm (Bergenfield, N.J.) bunted him over to second with junior Giuseppe Papaccio (Nutley, N.J.) tallying the RBI-base hit two batters later.
Grimm drew a leadoff walk in the eighth, and again it was a sacrifice bunt that moved him into scoring position. A wild pitch from Manhattan (1-8) reliever Sean Abbate allowed him to move over to third base and he scored on a RBI grounder to second from Boyd.
Seton Hall (5-7) returns to action this weekend as it heads to Port Charlotte, Fla., for the Snowbird Classic. The Pirates open the tournament against Miami (Ohio) on Friday, March 9, with first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m
