Pirates beat Liberty in series opener, 5-4

Friday, February 21

Lynchburg, Va.

4 p.m.

Seton Hall University

3-1

Liberty

1-4

Seton Hall

Liberty

2/21/2020 8:07:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Toke finishes with three hits, McLinskey earns the win and Sawyer gets the save for the Hall

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Senior Matt Toke (Three Bridges, N.J.) went 3-for-4 with an RBI and junior Ryan McLinskey (Pearl River, N.Y.) struck out a career-high eight batters in the Seton Hall baseball team's 5-4 win over Liberty on Friday evening.

Junior Casey Dana (Montgomery, N.Y.) and sophomore Steve Grober (Hillsborough, N.J.) both registered multi-hit games and RBI singles while senior Connor Hood (Shrewsbury, Pa.) knocked in a run on a base hit of his own. Senior Corey Sawyer (Kearny, N.J.) registered his first save of the season for the Hall (3-1).

What Happened:

The Pirates got out to a hot start, compiling four straight hits in the top of the first that included an RBI single from Dana which put the Hall ahead 1-0. Toke extended the lead in the visiting half of the third with an RBI base knock that made it 2-0.

McLinskey retired six of the first seven batters and he got out of a jam in the third where he faced two runners on and no one out. After a sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position, McLinskey fanned the next two hitters to end the threat.

In the fourth, senior Mike Esposito (Chester, N.J.) socked a two-out double to left and came around to score on a throwing error by the second baseman to give the Pirates a 3-0 advantage. After the Flames pushed two across in the fourth, McLinskey retired the side in order in the fifth and got the first two outs in the sixth before being lifted for sophomore Nick Payero (Monroe, N.J.).

The Hall tacked onto its lead with back-to-back two-out RBI singles in the seventh, making it 5-2, but the Flames wouldn't go away as they plated runs in the bottom of the seventh and eighth. With the Pirates holding on to a one-run lead, Sawyer retired the side in the ninth to help give Seton Hall the win.

News & Notes:

The Pirates are now 1-1 all-time against Liberty.
The Seton Hall pitching staff combined to strike out 11 batters.
After setting a career high with six strikeouts in his first career start at No. 20 Wake Forest (2/14), McLinskey broke that mark with eight Ks on Friday against the Flames.
Liberty had two errors, with one of them allowing a run to score, to the Pirates' zero error.
Toke's first multi-hit game of the season was a three-hit performance, one shy of tying his career high that last accomplished at TCU on April 12, 2019.
Dana now has two multi-hit games this season and 21 for his career.
Redshirt junior Christian Del Castillo (Miami, Fla.) made his first appearance of the season for the Hall.
Sawyer now has six career saves.
Payero and junior Sean Miller (Newton, N.J.) made their second appearances of the season in relief.

Up Next:
Game two of the three-game series between Seton Hall and Liberty will begin at 2 p.m. tomorrow. This is the only game in the series that will be streamed on ESPN+ but an audio stream and live stats can be found on the baseball schedule page on SHUPirates.com.