Pirates Fall Despite HRs, Miller's Strong Effort

Sunday, March 10

Miami, Fla. / FIU Baseball Stadium

12:00 PM

Seton Hall University

1-9

Florida International

9-6

Seton Hall

FIU

3/10/2019 4:04:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score HOME INFO BOX SCORE

MIAMI, FLA. – Both Sebastiano Santorelli (Tuckahoe, N.Y.) and Casey Dana (Montgomery, N.Y.) homered, and reliever Sean Miller (Newton, N.J.) tossed five hitless innings, but the Seton Hall baseball team dropped the series finale at Florida International, 6-5, on Sunday.

Miller entered the game with no outs in the first inning and proceeded to pitch a career-high five innings with six strikeouts and two walks. The sophomore's effort is by far the best of his young career considering he appeared in just three games as a freshman totaling 1.1 innings.

Junior Christian Del Castillo (Miami, Fla.) reached base three times, going 2-for-3 with two doubles, a walk and a run scored.

Santorelli belted a two-run home run in the first inning, and finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored. Dana's blast was a solo shot in the third inning, and he went 1-for-3 with two runs scored and a hit-by-pitch.

What Happened:
Seton Hall got its offense started right away. With one out in the top of the first, Del Castillo doubled to left-center field. With two outs, sophomore Jerry Huntzinger (Staten Island, N.Y.) singled through the left side to plate Del Castillo with the game's first run. Santorelli followed with a two-run blast to put The Hall up, 3-0.

After FIU got two runs back off Seton Hall starter Tyler Burnham (East Brunswick, N.J.) in the bottom of the first, the Pirates added an insurance run back in the top of the third inning on Dana's solo home run.

With two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, FIU finally got its first hit, a three-run home run off the bat of Juan Teixeira off freshman Pirate reliever Blaise Panzini (Spring Lake, N.J.) to put the Panthers in front, 5-4.

Inside the Numbers:

Seton Hall out-hit Florida International, 6-to-4. The Panthers committed one errors, but The Hall committed none.
Miller tossed a career-high five scoreless innings and struck out a career-high six batters with only two walks to earn his first victory. He didn't allow a hit.
Santorelli went 2-for-4 with a run scored and a two-run home run.
Dana went 1-for-3 with a solo home run, a run scored and a hit-by-pitch.
Del Castillo reached base three times, going 2-for-3 with two doubles, a walk and a run scored.
Huntzinger went 1-for-3 with a walk, a run scored, an RBI and a stolen base.
Ryan McLinskey (Pearl River, N.Y.) and Corey Sawyer (Kearny, N.J.) combined to pitch the final 1.2 innings without allowing a run.
The Pirates left four men on base, while Florida International left seven.
Panzini took the loss for Seton Hall. He allowed three runs in one inning of work.
FIU's Everett Hurst picked up the victory with 2.0 innings of relief.
The Panther's Jose Varela earned the save with a scoreless ninth inning.

News & Notes:

The Pirates fall to 1-9 on the young season, while Florida International improves to 9-6.
Seton Hall drops to 11-22 all-time against FIU. The Pirates were swept in the series, but all three games were decided by three or fewer runs, with the bookends one-run games. In all, five of the Pirates' nine losses this season have been by only one run.
The Hall tripled its season-long home run output in one afternoon. The Pirates entered the game with just one long ball on the season, but homered twice today. Santorelli's bomb is the third of his career, while Dana's homer is No. 8, which leads all current Pirates.
Two Pirates made their 2019 season debuts, sophomore Sean Miller and freshman Blaise Panzini.
Today was the eighth time in 10 games this season that the Pirates haven't committed an error. Unfortunately, they're just 1-7 in those games.

Next Up:
Seton Hall will return to action on Tuesday, March 12 when it continues its Spring Break trip at the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla. The Pirates will open with Bucknell at 1:30 p.m.