Balanced Effort Propels Seton Hall To 6-2 Win Over Xavier

Friday, April 8

South Orange, N.J.

4 p.m.

Seton Hall University

7-21, 1-0

Xavier

15-16, 0-1

Xavier

Seton Hall

Balanced Effort Propels Seton Hall To 6-2 Win Over Xavier

4/8/2022 7:47:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

South Orange, N.J. — Four Pirates registered multi-hit games, senior Alex Clyde (Old Tappan, N.J.) hit a two-run home run and graduate student Hunter Waldis (Naples, Fla.) struck out four in a winning decision as the Seton Hall baseball team opened BIG EAST play with a 6-2 win over Xavier at Mike Sheppard, Sr. Stadium at Owen T. Carroll Field on Friday afternoon.

Junior Devin Hack (Somerville, N.J.) had another strong day at the plate where he went 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBI. Junior Christopher Shine (South Plainfield, N.J.) and sophomore Zane Probst (Mill Hall, Pa.) combined to allow only two hits and strike out five batters in 3.2 innings of relief work.

How It Happened

After Waldis worked out of trouble in the top of the first, the Pirates offense went right to work. Redshirt sophomore Will Gale (Scotch Plains, N.J.) led off the home half of the inning with an infield single, proceeded to steal second base and move to third on a throwing error by the catcher. With the infield in, Hack wasted no time and drove a pitch back through the middle that plated Gale and gave the Pirates an early 1-0 lead.

Later in the inning, with runners on second and third and one out, senior Steve Grober (Hillsborough, N.J.) lifted a fly ball deep to center field that scored the run from third on the sacrifice fly. With The Hall now leading 2-0, graduate student Collin Sheehan (Doylestown, Pa.) knocked a two-out base hit right field that sent Mark McNelly (Limerick, Pa.) come home all the way from second base and gave the Pirates a 3-0 advantage.

With two outs in the bottom of the second, Gale sent a ball over the left fielders head and he turned it into a triple. Hack followed the three-bagger up with a triple if his own, extending the Seton Hall lead to 4-0. The lead gave Waldis some extra breathing room as he retired nine-consecutive batters from the third through fifth innings.

In the top of the sixth, the Musketeers drew closer with a two-run home run that made it a 6-2 ball game. Xavier was still threatening in the sixth with runners on second and third and one out but Shine was called in from the bullpen and recorded a swinging strikeout and a groundout to the shortstop Jonathan Luders (Lynnfield, Mass.) that ended the threat.

Shine worked clean innings in the seventh and eighth that set the stage for Probst, who worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to finish out the Seton Hall victory.

News & Notes