Festa, Dana Lead Pirates to Game 2 Win

Saturday, April 6

Plymouth Meeting, Pa. / Ballpark at Plymouth

TBD

Seton Hall University

12-14, 1-1

Villanova

7-21, 1-1

Seton Hall

Villanova

4/6/2019 7:40:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score HOME INFO BOX SCORE

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA. – Freshman David Festa (Verona, N.J.) pitched 5.1 strong innings and sophomore Casey Dana (Montgomery, N.Y.) belted a home run as the Seton Hall baseball team earned a split of Saturday's doubleheader, defeating Villanova, 6-3, in game two.

Festa was brilliant, allowing just one run over 5.1 innings pitched with a career-high nine strikeouts and only two walks to earn the victory.

Dana reached base a team-best three times, going 2-for-4 with a walk, an RBI, a stolen base, two runs scored and his team-leading fifth home run of the season. Freshman Steve Grober (Hillsborough, N.J.) drove in a team-best three runs.

What Happened:
Seton Hall again got its offense started right away in the first inning. Jerry Huntzinger (Staten Island, N.Y.) laid down a perfect bunt single to begin the game. He then advanced to second on a single by Dana, and eventually third base on a fielding error by Villanova's centerfielder. Junior Matt Toke (Three Bridges, N.J.) drove in The Hall's first run with a sacrifice fly to left field for the first out of the inning. With two outs and two runners in scoring position, Grober delivered a triple into the right-center field gap to score two more and extend the Pirates' lead to 3-0.

The Hall broke the game open with another three-spot in the top of the third. Dana crushed a solo home run over the left field fence to lead off the inning. With one out, Toke singled to left field, and came in to score on an RBI triple by Tyler Shedler-McAvoy (Allendale, N.J.). Grober followed with an RBI fielder's choice to extend their advantage to 6-0.

CASEY SMASH!!! This one is a NO-DOUBTER!! His fifth of the season extends The Hall's lead to 4-0!!#HALLin pic.twitter.com/InU2VukGP0
— Seton Hall Baseball (@SHUBaseball) April 6, 2019

Villanova struck for three runs late, including two in the eighth inning, but the Pirate bullpen was able to shut the door. Sophomore Ryan McLinskey (Pearl River, N.Y.) pitched the final 1.1 innings to earn his first career save.

Inside the Numbers:

Both teams had seven hits. The Pirates committed no errors, while the Wildcats had three.
Festa picked up the victory. He allowed only one run on four hits over 5.1 innings pitched. Festa struck out a career-high nine batters and walked only two.
Dana reached base three times, going 2-for-4 with a home run, an RBI, a walk, a stolen base and two runs scored.
Grober had a triple and a team-high three RBIs.
McLinskey picked up his first career save with 1.1 innings of scoreless relief.
Seton Hall left seven men on base, while the Wildcats left 11.
Villanova's Jimmy Kingsbury took the loss. He allowed six runs over 7.0 innings pitched.

News & Notes:

The Pirates improve to 12-14 overall and 1-1 in the BIG EAST, while Villanova falls to 7-21 overall and 1-1 in conference play.
Seton Hall improves to 88-44 all-time against the Wildcats and has won 10 of the last 11 games in the series.
Shedler-McAvoy has now reached base in 16 consecutive games, which is the longest active streak on the Pirates.
Today was the 14^th time this season that Seton Hall struck out at least 10 batters.
Seton Hall improves to 13-0 when leading after seven innings.

Next Up:
Seton Hall will return to action tomorrow when it concludes its three-game BIG EAST series in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. against Villanova. First pitch is scheduled for Noon.