Seton Hall University
St. John's
Baseball Drops Game 2 at St. John's, 7-4
4/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BOX SCORE (.pdf) 
| BOX SCORE (.html)
QUEENS, N.Y. -- St. John's put up six runs through the first four innings as the Seton Hall baseball team lost to the Red Storm, 7-4, on Saturday.
With the loss, the Pirates drop the season series to St. John's and a potential standings tie-breaker at season's end.
Kyle Grimm (Bergenfield, N.J.) reached base three times to lead Seton Hall offensively. The senior went 1-for-2 with a double, two walks and two runs scored.
Grimm led off the top of the second inning with a double down the right field line. St. John's starter Ryan McCormick then plunked D.J. Ruhlman (Belle Mead, N.J.). Sal Annunziata (Bronx, N.Y.) grounded out to move both runners into scoring position, and another ground out, this time by Tyler Boyd (Succasunna, N.J.), produced the first run of the game.
A day after the Pirates defense made three errors, their defense let starter Shane McCarthy (Fair Haven, N.J.) down twice in the bottom of the second. Grimm made a fine play on a hard hit grounder down the third base line, but threw high of first base, allowing St. John's Jarred Mederos to advance to second base. Troy Dixon followed with a single through the right side to drive in the tying run. With two outs and a runner on second, St. John's Michael Donadio hit a scorcher that ricocheted off McCarthy to Chris Chiaradio (Teaneck, N.J.), but the second baseman misfielded the ball, allowing Dixon to score with the go-ahead run, 2-1.
In the third inning, McCarthy ran into trouble again. After a single and double put two St. John's runners in scoring position, Troy Dixon hit a three-run home run to give the Red Storm a commanding 5-1 lead.
Trailing 6-1, Seton Hall cut into the Red Storm lead in the sixth inning. Junior Derek Jenkins (Annandale, N.J.) walked to lead off and advanced to third on a single by Joe Poduslenko (Glen Mills, Pa.). Zack Weigel (Oak Park, Ill.) followed with an RBI ground out to second base, which plated Jenkins. After Grimm walked, Ruhlman delivered a deep fly ball to left field, which was caught, but was deep enough to score Poduslenko and cut the St. John's lead to 6-3.
In the seventh inning, Dixon struck again for the Red Storm. The sophomore delivered a run-scoring triple against reliever Dan Ditusa (St. Charles, Ill.) to extend the St. John's lead to 7-3. For Dixon, his five RBIs today matched his season total entering the game.
Seton Hall attempted a two-out rally in the top of the eighth inning. Grimm walked and Ruhlman doubled to right-center field, advancing Grimm to third base. Mikael-Ali Mogues (New York, N.Y.) was hit by the first pitch from Thomas Hackimer and the bases were loaded. Boyd walked to force in a run and cut the Seton Hall deficit to 7-4, but Chiaradio grounded out to second base to end the inning.
McCarthy took the loss for Seton Hall. The freshman pitched only three innings, giving up four earned runs.
The Pirates' bullpen however, pitched well again for The Hall. Sam Burum (Robbinsville, N.J.), Ditusa and Joe DiBenedetto (Staten Island, N.Y.) combined to limit the Red Storm to just one run over the game's final five innings.
Seton Hall will conclude its three-game series with St. John's tomorrow afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
| LINE SCORE | ||||||||||||
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| SETON HALL (16-12, 3-2) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
| St. John's (18-11, 5-0) | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 7 | 13 | 0 |
Win - Ryan McCormick (5-1) Loss - Shane McCarthy (4-2) Save - None
