Pirates Title Quest Falls Short in Final

Sunday, May 27

Mason, Ohio / Prasco Park

TBD

Seton Hall University

30-20-1

#1 St. John's

39-15

Seton Hall

St. John's

Photo by: Dave Wegiel

5/28/2018 12:01:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score HOME INFO BOX SCORE

MASON, OHIO – The Seton Hall baseball team played its fifth game in four days and ultimately succumbed to the strong pitching of St. John's Jeff Belge in a 7-0 loss to the Red Storm in the title game of the 2018 BIG EAST Championship on Sunday.

The Pirates defeated St. John's, 19-2, earlier in the day simply to force a winner-take-all game seven of the tournament, their third straight elimination game victory. But Belge allowed only two hits over eight innings in Sunday's second game, no-hitting the Pirates through the first six frames.

Seton Hall used five pitchers total, bringing back both Ricky DeVito (Staten Island, N.Y.) and Shane McCarthy (Fair Haven, N.J.) on short rest, but ultimately it was a rested Belge, who stole the show, and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

St. John's took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning on a two-out RBI single by John Valente. McCarthy came on in relief to begin the third inning, and pitched well, but the Red Storm bats struck again with two outs in the fifth. With two outs and no one on, McCarty surrendered three straight hits, the third of which, a double, drove in two runs to give the Red Storm a 3-0 lead.

Josh Shaw provided the exclamation point in the sixth inning, hitting a grand slam to provide the final margin of the game.

All seven of St. John's runs were scored with two outs.

Inside the Numbers:

Sophomore Blake Espinal (Bronx, N.Y.) pitched 1.1 scoreless innings.
Senior Matt Leon (Bethlehem, Pa.) pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
Senior Ryan Ramiz (Freehold, N.J.) and junior Sebastiano Santorelli (Tuckahoe, N.Y.) collected the only hits for Seton Hall. Ramiz was the lone Pirate to reach base twice, also collecting a walk.
The Pirates had only two hits, while St. John's had 12. Both teams committed two errors.
Seton Hall left four men on base, while St. John's left seven. Both teams turned two double plays.
DeVito took the loss. He allowed one run over two innings.

News & Notes:

The loss gives Seton Hall a final record of 30-20-1, while St. John's improves to 39-15.
The Hall is the BIG EAST Championship runner-up for the fifth time in history.
The Pirates drop to 37-42 all-time in BIG EAST Championship games.
Seton Hall falls to 60-71 all-time against St. John's, and 2-3 against the Red Storm this season.
With his 2.2 innings of relief in the game, McCarthy became only the fourth player in Seton Hall history to surpass 300 career innings pitched.
Today's appearance was the 88th of Leon's career, which ranks second-most in Seton Hall history. Only George Fernandez (94) has taken the mound in more Seton Hall games ever.
With today's doubleheader, Ramiz climbed into Seton Hall's career top-10 in four different categories. Ramiz finishes his career with 660 at bats, which passes Anthony Seratelli and Mark Pappas into 10^th place all-time. Today's games give him 199 for his career, which ties Pete Mancini and Zach Weigel for 10^th place. Ramiz's game one triple gives him 10 for his career, which ties Brian Leighton and Zack Granite for ninth-most as a Pirate. Finally, Ramiz finishes with 114 walks, which ties Steve Caravello and Brian Leighton for eighth on the Pirates' career list.

2018 BIG EAST Championship All-Tournament Team:
Ryan Pepiot, Butler, So., RHP
Andrew Politi, Seton Hall, R-Jr., RHP
Jeff Belge, St. John's, So., LHP
Al Molina, Seton Hall, Sr., SS
Luke Stampfl, St. John's, Grad., 1B
Matt Toke, Seton Hall, So., 1B
Josh Shaw, St. John's, Jr., 2B
Michael DeRenzi, Georgetown, Sr., OF
Gehrig Parker, Butler, Sr., OF
Jamie Galazin, St. John's, Sr., OF
Mike Alescio, Seton Hall, Sr., C

Jack Kaiser Most Outstanding Player:
Jeff Belge, St. John's, So., LHP