No. 12 Tar Heels Get By Seton Hall, 4-2

Sunday, February 19

Chapel Hill, NC

1 p.m.

Seton Hall University

1-2

North Carolina

2-1

Seton Hall

North Carolina

Joe Cinnella throws a pitch during the 2022 season

2/19/2023 6:32:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Chapel Hill, N.C. - Despite a strong effort from its bullpen, which held No. 12 North Carolina scoreless for 6.1 innings, the Seton Hall baseball team couldn't clinch a series victory on Sunday as the Pirates narrowly fell to the Tar Heels, 4-2.

Redshirt sophomore Cole Hansen (Skillman, N.J.) tossed three innings of scoreless relief with two strikeouts for the Pirates (1-2). He was followed by graduate student Dom DiRado (Vestal, N.Y.), junior Jay Allmer (Cary, N.C.) and graduate student Joe Cinnella (Mahwah, N.J.) in the shutout tossed by the Seton Hall relievers. Redshirt junior Will Gale (Scotch Plains, N.J.) went 2-for-4 with an RBI at the top of the order

How It Happened

In his first career start, freshman John Downing (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) worked a scoreless top of the first that featured his first collegiate strikeout in a strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play that ended the frame. The Pirates loaded the bases in the top of the second and couldn't cash in while the Tar Heels took a 3-0 lead in the home half on a three-run home run. An RBI triple in the same inning gave UNC a 4-0 advantage but Hansen was able to keep them off the scoreboard in the third.

In the top of the fourth, junior Zack Sylvester (Montville, N.J.) got the inning started with a single to left field, moved to second on an error by the shortstop and stole third base. With no one out, graduate student Alex Clyde (Old Tappan, N.J.) put the ball in play and reached on a fielder's choice while Sylvester crossed the plate for The Hall's first run of the game. A sacrifice bunt by redshirt junior Jonathan Luders (Lynnfield, Mass.) moved Clyde into scoring position and Gale sent him home on a base hit, cutting the Pirates' deficit to two, 4-2.

Hansen worked a scoreless fourth and recorded two outs in the fifth before DiRado retired the final batter of the inning and Allmer later came on and sat down six of the seven batters he faced in the sixth and seventh innings. Offensively, the Pirates had two on and one out in the fifth and put a runner on in the sixth, seventh and eighth but couldn't close the gap on the Tar Heels.

News & Notes

Seton Hall leaves Chapel Hill with a win over North Carolina on Friday, its first since 2011.
UNC's four runs were scored with two outs.
The Pirates stranded 11 runners in the game.
Seton Hall went 6-for-15 with two outs.
The bottom half of the Seton Hall batting order produced once again as the five through nine spots in the batting order tallied hits.

Up Next

Seton Hall will next travel to Sugar Land, Texas where they will play Northwestern State, Houston Christian and New Mexico State over three days at the Sugar Land Classic starting on Friday, Feb. 24.