Long Ball Helps Pirates Even Series With St. John's, 8-3

Saturday, April 15

Queens, N.Y. / Kaiser Stadium

11:30 a.m.

Seton Hall University

17-16, 0

St. John's

18-14, 0

Seton Hall

St. John's

Oscar Murray at the plate against Georgetown

Long Ball Helps Pirates Even Series With St. John's, 8-3

4/15/2023 4:02:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score BOX SCORE (PDF)

Queens, N.Y. - Six of the Seton Hall baseball team's eight runs were driven in via the long ball as the Pirates rode three home runs and a strong start from sophomore Daniel Frontera (Red Bank, N.J.) to even up the three-game series with St. John's following an 8-3 win on Saturday.

Redshirt junior Mark McNelly (Limerick, Pa.) tied the game up at 1-1 in the top of the second inning, redshirt junior Oscar Murray's (Brentwood, Calif.) three-run blast broke a 3-3 tie in the eighth and redshirt junior Staus Pokrovsky (Pittsgrove, N.J.) added insurance in the ninth with a two-run big fly.

Frontera tossed five innings and allowed only one run with no walks while freshman Michael Gillen (Rochelle Park, N.J.) earned the win after throwing two scoreless innings and allowing just one batter to reach base. The Seton Hall (17-16, 3-2 BIG EAST) defense didn't commit an error and its turned two double plays.

THE GAME:

Frontera got into some trouble early as St. John's took a 1-0 lead in the first but the Pirates answered in the second as McNelly turned on a pitch for his second hone run of the season, tying up the score at 1-1. Frontera then settled in as he retired 10 of the next 13 batters that stepped to the plate.

With two on and two out in the top of the fourth, graduate student Alex Clyde (Old Tappan, N.J.) sent a 1-0 pitch back up the middle for a base hit that drove in McNelly and put the Pirates in front, 2-1. Clyde would later get hit by a pitch in the top of the seventh and advanced to third on a passed ball and wild pitch, respectively. He would dash home on another wild pitch and it extended The Hall's lead to 3-1.

St. John's would tie up the score at 3-3 in the bottom half of the seventh but the long ball came into play again for the Pirates in the eighth. Junior Devin Hack (Somerville, N.J.) led off the inning with a single and classmate Jonathan Luders (Lynnfield, Mass.) drew a one-out walk to give Seton Hall two runners on. Murray then stepped to the dish and lifted a 1-1 pitch the opposite way and over the right field fence that put the Pirates back in front, 6-3.

After Gillen came on in the eighth to retire the side, a two-run home run for Pokrovsky in the top of the ninth added key insurance runs that made it 8-3. Gillen worked a quick 1-2-3 inning that closed the door on the game two.

THE NUMBERS:

The Pirates finished with eight hits while St. John's had nine.
The Seton Hall pitching staff allowed only one walk in nine innings.
Seton Hall scored eight runs despite leaving nine men on base.
Seton Hall went 4-for-9 leading off an inning.
Clyde was the lone Pirate to record a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4.
Cole Hansen (Skillman, N.J.) led the pitching staff with two strikeouts in two innings of work.

THE NOTES:

Seton Hall is one home run away from matching last season's team total.
Pokrovsky now has four home runs on the season, a new career high.
Murray's home run was his first of the season and the third of his career.
Murray has already matched his RBI total from last season.
McNelly's home run marked his first as a Pirate.
The Pirates improve to 9-2 this season when holding their opponents to three runs or less.

UP NEXT:

The rubber game between the Pirates and Red Storm will go down on Sunday, April 16 at 1 p.m.