Pirates Shut Out Villanova, Clinch BIG EAST Tournament Berth

Thursday, May 18

Villanova, PA

3 p.m.

Seton Hall University

29-22, 0

Villanova

14-35, 0

Seton Hall

Villanova

Nick Payero walks off the mound after a start against Creighton

Pirates Shut Out Villanova, Clinch BIG EAST Tournament Berth

5/18/2023 7:19:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score BOX SCORE (PDF)

Plymouth Meeting, Pa. - Graduate student Nick Payero (Monroe, N.J.) and freshman Michael Gillen (Rochelle Park, N.J.) combined to shut out Villanova on Thursday as Seton Hall took game one of a three-game series against the Wildcats, 4-0.

Redshirt junior Staus Pokrovsky (Pittsgrove, N.J.) hit his team-best ninth home run of the season and sophomore Jedier Hernandez (Trenton, N.J.) had an RBI single. Payero impressed once again as he tossed seven shutout innings with six strikeouts. Gillen followed and blanked the Wildcats in the eighth and ninth innings while fanning two batters.

With the win and Georgetown's 3-2 loss at Xavier, the Pirates (29-22, 11-8 BIG EAST) have officially clinched a spot in next week's BIG EAST Championship at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio. The Hall will either be seeded third or forth in the four-team field with UConn locked into the number one seed and Xavier seeded second.

THE GAME:

Seton Hall scratched across a run in the top of the first inning when senior Oscar Murray (Brentwood, Calif,) was hit by a pitch and later came around to score on a sacrifice fly from graduate student Alex Clyde (Old Tappan, N.J.). After Payero's first one-two-three inning of the game, Pokrovsky led off the top of the second with a solo home run that made it 2-0 Seton Hall.

Payero worked around potential trouble in the third inning and proceeded to retire nine consecutive Villanova hitters from the fourth inning through the sixth inning. The Pirates created some separation in the top of the seventh as they loaded the bases with nobody out. Hernandez delivered a run-scoring single that pushed the lead to 3-0 and junior Zack Sylvester (Montville, N.J.) followed with a sac fly RBI that gave The Hall a 4-0 advantage.

After Gillen turned in a scoreless eighth, Villanova put a runner on first in the ninth with one out. A sharp liner was snagged by Clyde at first base for the second out and he tagged the first base bag that completed the game-ending double play.

NEWS & NOTES

Seton Hall has won four straight games and 10 of its last 14.
The Pirates return to the BIG EAST Tournament following a one-year absence.
Seton Hall has qualified for 11 of the last 12 BIG EAST Championships.
29 wins for the Pirates are their most victories since winning 30 games in 2018.
Payero has thrown 14.1 consecutive shutout innings with 13 strikeouts over his last two starts.
Payero improved to 5-2 on the season and 3-1 in BIG EAST play.
Gillen hasn't allowed a run in BIG EAST play, which accounts for 11.2 innings in eight appearances, and has an overall ERA of 0.34.
Pokrovsky's nine home runs are tied for the second-most by a Pirate in the last 20 years with Chris Affinito, who also hit nine home runs in 2009.
Six of Pokrovsky's nine home runs this season has come against BIG EAST competition.
Junior Max Viera (Greenwood Lake, N.Y.) went 2-for-4 with a run scored, giving him 19 multi-hit games on the season
Viera now has three four-RBI games and nine multi-RBI games this season.