Pirate Offense Comes Alive Late Against Saint Mary’s, 6-1

Thursday, March 5

Moraga, Calif.

5 p.m.

Seton Hall University

5-6

Saint Mary's

4-8

Seton Hall

Saint Mary's

Pirate Offense Comes Alive Late Against Saint Mary’s, 6-1

3/5/2020 8:36:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Payero, Burnham combine to stifle the Gaels’ from the mound in the series opener

MORAGA, Calif. – Strong pitching and a five-run eighth inning lifted the Seton Hall baseball team to a 6-1 series opening victory over Saint Mary's on Thursday evening.

Junior Casey Dana (Montgomery, N.Y.) continued his hot-hitting with an RBI single to go along with two intentional walks and senior Connor Hood (Shrewsbury, Pa.) picked up the critical two-run single for the Pirates (5-6) in the eighth. Sophomore Nick Payero (Monroe, N.J.) improved to 2-0 on the season after allowing only one earned run and five hits with three strikeouts in 7.0 innings of work.

Junior Tyler Burnham (East Brunswick, N.J.) faced six batters and had four strikeouts over two innings in a non-save opportunity.

What Happened:
Making his first start of the season for the Pirates, Payero stranded runners in the first and second innings before retiring the side in order in the bottom of the third.

In the top of the fourth, senior Tyler Shedler-McAvoy (Allendale, N.J.) led off the inning with a base hit and then stole second with one out. With two down, Dana delivered with a single to left that scored Shedler-McAvoy and gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

Payero continued to work out trouble until the seventh when the Gaels tied up the score at 1-1 on a solo home run. Following a scoreless seventh, the Pirates posted a crooked number in the top of the eighth.

Freshman Devin Hack (Somerville, N.J.) led off the frame with a bunt single and senior Matt Toke (Three Bridges, N.J.) and redshirt junior Christian Del Castillo (Miami, Fla.) followed with back-to-back singles that loaded the bases. After a pitching change, Hack came home on a wild pitch that went to the back stop that put the Pirates ahead, 2-1. Hood provided some much needed insurance with his two RBI single and junior Thomas Holdorf (Freehold, N.J.) and sophomore David Haberman (Morristown, N.J.) followed with RBI base hits of their own, extending the Pirates' lead to 6-1.

Burnham would come on in relief of Payero and he retired the final six batters in order with four strikeouts.

News & Notes:

The Pirates are now 3-0 in series openers this season.
The Hall has scored at least six runs in four of its five wins this season.
In his fourth appearance of the year, Burnham set a season-high with four strikeouts.
Payero improves his record to 2-0 on the season and 4-1 in his career.
Toke went 2-for-5 with a double, giving him 35 multi-hit games and 23 doubles in his career.
Haberman, who went 2-for-4, has two multi-hit games this season.
Hood has now racked up 15 multi-RBI performances in three-plus years with the Pirates.

Up Next:

Due to poor weather in the forecast on Saturday, Seton Hall and Saint Mary's will play a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 1 p.m. Stream and live stat information can be found on the baseball schedule page on SHUPirates.com.