Seton Hall Clinches Series Over Creighton On Senior Day, 4-2

Saturday, May 13

South Orange, N.J.

2 p.m.

Seton Hall University

27-22, 9-8

Creighton

23-21, 9-8

Creighton

Seton Hall

Seton Hall Clinches Series Over Creighton On Senior Day, 4-2

5/13/2023 7:25:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score BOX SCORE (PDF)

South Orange, N.J. - Seton Hall saw another strong starting pitching performance, this time from sophomore Dan Frontera (Red Bank, N.J.), and a bullpen effort that combined to toss four scoreless innings as the Pirates clinched the three-game series with a 4-2 victory over Creighton on Senior Day at Mike Sheppard, Sr. Stadium.

The win puts the Pirates above .500 in BIG EAST play with a record of 9-8 and they are now tied with the Bluejays for third place in the conference standings.

Frontera tied his career high with five strikeouts in five innings where he only gave one earned run. Graduate student Brennan O'Neill (Morristown, N.J.) fanned three batters in two relief innings of work, graduate student Alex Nicolosi (Stony Point, N.Y.) worked a scoreless eighth and freshman Ryan Reich (Sellinsgrove, Pa.) registered his first career save. Graduate student Alex Clyde (Old Tappan, N.J.) and junior Max Viera (Greenwood Lake, N.Y.) both registered multi-hit games.

THE GAME:

Creighton opened the scoring in the top of the second inning on a run scoring groundout and a run scored on a Seton Hall throwing error. Frontera blanked the Bluejays in the third and the fourth that kept it a two-run deficit before the Seton Hall offense came alive.

The Pirates started off the bottom of the fourth with four consecutive hits that led to two runs as Clyde stroked a single to left field that plated senior Oscar Murray (Brentwood, Calif.) and Viera drove in the tying run on a base knock up the middle. The Pirates had two runners in scoring position with one when Clyde drew an errant throw down to third base from the catcher that sailed into left field, allowing him to score easily and put The Hall in front, 3-2.

Frontera worked out of trouble in the fifth and O'Neill came on in the sixth to retire the side. He came back out for the seventh and struck out the first batter swinging but the next Creighton batter reached on an error. With the tying run at the plate, the next Creighton batter hit a sharp ground ball towards the hole between second base and shortstop that was corralled by a diving Jonathan Luders (Lynnfield, Mass.) at second base. From his knees, Luders tossed the ball to Viera at second base for the first out before throwing to Clyde at first base for the final out of the inning.

Another four-six-three double play ended the top of the eighth inning with Nicolosi on mound in relief. In the home half, redshirt junior Staus Pokrovsky (Pittsgrove, N.J.) delivered with a double to right field that scored Viera and added a key insurance run, making it 4-2 Seton Hall. Reich put a runner on with one out in the ninth but was able to retire the next two batters to register his first career save.

NEWS & NOTES

The Pirates improve to 14-7 at Mike Sheppard, Sr. Stadium this season.
27 wins for the Pirates are their most victories since winning 30 games in 2018.
The Pirates are up to 91 stolen bases on the season, the most since stealing 183 bags in 2016.
Seton Hall pitching has allowed only one earned run with 18 strikeouts over its last 18 innings pitched.
Frontera has a 0.84 ERA in 10.2 innings with 10 strikeouts in his last two starts against No. 9 UConn and Creighton.
Pokrovsky now has 36 RBI on the season, second-most on the team.
Clyde now has a team-best 19 multi-hit games and Viera has the second-most with 18.
Murray extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
Reich has now struck out 32 batters this season, the second-most on the team, in just 23.2 innings.

UP NEXT:

The series finale between the Pirates and the Bluejays is set for 12 p.m. tomorrow at Mike Sheppard, Sr. Stadium.