Seton Hall Celebrates on Senior Night But Lose to Villanova, 3-2

Friday, May 13

South Orange, N.J.

4:20 p.m.

Seton Hall University

15-33, 4-11

Villanova

18-25-1, 8-8

Villanova

Seton Hall

Seton Hall Celebrates on Senior Night But Lose to Villanova, 3-2

5/13/2022 9:12:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

South Orange, N.J. - Senior Nick Payero (Monroe, N.J.) gave the Seton Hall baseball team five solid innings on the mound, and the Pirates rallied after a 30-minute rain delay to get within one hit of a potential win, but Villanova persevered and held on for a 3-2 victory Friday night at Mike Sheppard, Sr. Stadium.

After the game, the Pirates celebrated Senior Night and honored 14 senior student-athletes and one senior manager, including Joe Cinnella (Mahwah, N.J.), Alex Clyde (Old Tappan, N.J.), Steve Grober (Hillsborough, N.J.), David Haberman (Morristown, N.J.), Brennan O'Neill (Morristown, N.J.), Payero, Justin Scotto (Tinton Falls, N.J.), Collin Sheehan (Doylestown, Pa.), Bobby Sheppard (Basking Ridge, N.J.), Ryan Sheppard (Florham Park, N.J.) and Hunter Waldis (Naples, Fla.).

How It Happened
Villanova scored in the first inning as Payero seemingly made just one mistake on the day. Chris Rotondo tripled to the right-center gap and then scored on a dribbler up the third base line by Joey Castellanos.

Payero settled down and retired 14 of the final 16 batters he faced, including seven in a row to end his day.

Villanova took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the eighth when the rain became too much to play through. After a 30-minute rain delay, the Pirates found life with the bats as Grober singled to get the rally going. Clyde hit a one-out single to set up first and second, and then it was Scotto lacing a single to right to bring home Grober and get the Pirates on the board.

Freshman Jedier Hernandez (Trenton, N.J.) followed with an RBI single up the middle to bring home Clyde and make it a 3-2 game. However, Villanova's Danny Wilkinson came on in relief to strike out the next two batters and end the threat.

Seton Hall fought again in the ninth, putting runners on first and third needing just a hit in the gap to potentially win, but Wilkinson closed the game out for the Wildcats.

Numbers & Notes

Seton Hall out-hit Villanova, 11-5, but left 13 men on base on the day.
Grober, Clyde and Hernandez all had two-hit days with Grober and Clyde scoring the lone Pirates runs.
Payero, making his first start since April 23, was terrific, allowing just one run on four hits over five innings. He struck out six and did not walk a batter.
In total, Pirates pitchers struck out 10 Villanova batters.

Up Next
Seton Hall will conclude the home portion of the 2022 schedule with a Saturday doubleheader against the Wildcats beginning at noon. Both games will stream live on the Pirate Sports Network via FloBaseball, which requires a subscription.