Seton Hall Opens BIG EAST Championship Against Xavier

Wednesday, May 24

Mason, Ohio

6:30 p.m.

Seton Hall University

Xavier

Seton Hall baseball practicing at Prasco Park before the BIG EAST Tournament

Seton Hall Opens BIG EAST Championship Against Xavier

5/23/2023 10:26:00 PM | Baseball

LIVE STREAM LIVE STATS

Mason, Ohio - Third-seeded Seton Hall opens BIG EAST Championship action tomorrow against No. 2 seed Xavier at 6:30 p.m. at Prasco Park.

Every BIG EAST Tournament game will be streamed on the BIG EAST Digital Network on FloBaseball. 89.5 WSOU will also provide radio broadcast coverage.

The Pirates have won six straight games heading into the postseason after sweeping Creighton and Villanova to end the regular season. The Hall is looking to win its opening round game at the BIG EAST Championship for the first time since 2014.

What A Difference A Year Makes

After a disappointing 2022 campaign that saw the Pirates miss its first BIG EAST Tournament since 2012, Seton Hall had nowhere to go but up in 2023.
With a new assistant coaching staff, including Seton Hall greats Giuseppe Papaccio and Ryan Ramiz, the Pirates have improved drastically on the mound and at the plate.
Papaccio, Ramiz, pitching coach Jimmy Moran and head coach Rob Sheppard
With 31 victories this season, Seton Hall has its most wins since winning 38 games in 2016.
As a team, Seton Hall has already hit more home runs (37), scored more runs (338) and stolen more bases (94) than last season.
37 home runs are the most for the Pirates since the 2001 squad hit 38 round trippers.
338 runs are the most for Seton Hall since scoring 362 runs in 2014.
After posting a 6.38 team ERA in 2022, the Pirates' arms have a 4.45 staff ERA this season.

Multiple Pirates Honored

Postseason awards for BIG EAST baseball were announced Tuesday ahead of this week's BIG EAST Championship and Seton Hall has four selections on the All-BIG EAST First Team, one All-BIG EAST Second Team selection and the award for BIG EAST Coaching staff of the Year.
The Pirates' first team picks are graduate student right-handed pitcher Nick Payero (Monroe, N.J.), junior shortstop Max Viera (Greenwood Lake, N.Y.), graduate student designated hitter Staus Pokrovsky (Pittsgrove, N.J.) and redshirt junior center fielder Devin Hack (Somerville, N.J.). The Hall is represented on the second team by redshirt junior second baseman. Jonathan Luders (Lynnfield, Mass.).
Seton Hall has the second-most first team selections in the conference, behind only regular season champion Connecticut. Its the most first team selections for The Hall since 2014 when it also had four picks and its tied for the most in program history since the conference moved to two postseason teams in 1994.

Staus Has The Power

Pokrovsky has served as the Pirates' power bat all season long as he's just the fifth Pirate since 2000 to hit 10 home runs in season.
He finished the regular season fifth in the BIG EAST with a .348 batting average, first with a .742 slugging percentage, tied for second with seven home runs and tied for third with 49 total bases.

Everyone Loves Luders

Jonathan Luders has been a leader on and off the field for the Pirates.
He finished third in the conference with a .489 on-base percentage in league games and did all of the little things that helped the Pirates win 31 games; leading the BIG EAST with five sacrifice bunts and eight times was hit by a pitch in against league foes.
Luders played a strong second base as he ranked fourth in the conference with 57 assists and tied for third turning 14 double plays in BIG EAST games.
He only committed one error in 100 fielding chances since the start of league play.
Off the field, he's the vice president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee at Seton Hall, a member of the prestigious Buccino Leadership Institute and is a part of Psi Chi – the international honor society in Psychology.

The Young Guns

The Pirates have some young arms on the pitching staff that have been impressive in their freshman campaigns.
Michael Gillen (Rochelle Park, N.J.) leads the team with 18 appearances and is posting a 0.34 ERA in 26.1 innings.
He's been a part of four shutouts, has two saves and owns an eye popping strikeout-to-walk ratio of 27-to-5.
Gillens hasn't allowed an earned run in eight appearances in BIG EAST play.
Freshman Ryan Reich (Sellinsgrove, Pa.) is tied for second on the team with 17 appearances, has an ERA of 2.00, has 37 strikeouts in 27 innings and has an opponent's batting average of .157.
Freshman Anthony Ehly (Glenside, Pa.) has been strong in midweek games where he has made nine appearances with four starts and owns a 2.53 ERA.

Pirate Treasure

Saturday starter Daniel Frontera (Red Bank, N.J.) is the son of former Pirate pitcher and teammate of head coach Rob Sheppard, Chad Frontera, who was a second team All-BIG EAST selection as a pitcher in 1994.
Junior reliver Michael Ciminiello (Saint James, N.Y.) and junior utility Zack Sylvester (Montville, N.J.) received Seton Hall's Petersheim Academic Presentation Award for their research poster titled "Application of Machine Learning to Predict Shoulder Biomechanical Efficiency".
The Pirates had five athletes named CSC Academic All-District, which recognizes the nation's top baseball student-athletes for their combined performances on the diamond and in the classroom. Athletes must have at least a 3.5 GPA; Alex Clyde (graduate business), Jonathan Luders (psychology), Pat D'Amico (finance), Jedier Hernandez (management), Zack Sylvester (biology).
Staus Pokrovsky's younger brother, Jarrett, is an infielder at Penn and helped the Quakers win the Ivy League championship on Monday.