Seton Hall
Game Preview: Hall looks to strike early in series against Georgetown (5/10/19)
Date: May 9, 2019By Michael Daly
The Seton Hall baseball team (22-23, 6-6) will host the Georgetown Hoyas (19-30, 5-7) on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. at Jack Kaiser Stadium in Queens, New York.
Friday’s tilt against Georgetown will be the fourth time that the Pirates will play a home game at St. John’s home stadium this season. The Pirates are coming off of a road series against the Xavier Musketeers, where they stole two of three games from Xavier. In the series, Seton Hall outscored Xavier 19-11 and posted 14 runs within the first two games.
The Pirates lost the third and final game of the series, 7-5. Xavier’s Chris Givin crushed a home run to left field off of David Festa that gave the Musketeers an early 1-0 lead. The Hall went on to score a combined four runs in the fourth and seventh inning, but Xavier held off Seton Hall by scoring six runs over the final five innings of play. Festa received the loss and his season record dropped to 2-3.
Seton Hall currently sits third in the Big East with a .500 record in Big East play. The Pirates are 7-1 in their previous eight games and have won their last two series against Big East opponents. Seton Hall’s leading hitter, Tyler Shedler-Mcavoy, is sixth in the Big East in batting with a .314 average. Matt Toke is the only other Pirate hitting above .300 on the season, as his average currently stands at .301.
As a team, Seton Hall is sixth in the Big East in hitting, with a team average of .251. The Pirates’ opponent on Friday, Georgetown, is fifth in the conference in hitting with a collective average of .254. Georgetown’s leading hitter is Eddie McCabe, who is stroking with a .328 average over 49 games played. McCabe adds three homers and 25 RBIs to his impressive stat sheet this season. Georgetown has 35 home runs this season, compared to Seton Hall’s 23 home runs. The Hoyas’ leading home run hitter is Kyle Ruedsili with 10 home runs. Ruedsili also leads the team in RBIs with 26.
Seton Hall ranks third in the conference in overall pitching with a team ERA of 4.05. Ricky Devito has posted a .408 earned-run-average over his nine starts and appearances for Seton Hall, while his teammate Noah Thompson has a 5.01 earned-run-average in 11 appearances on the mound. Devito is 2-4 on the season and Thompson sports a 3-2 record on the hill.
Georgetown is fifth in the Big East in pitching with an overall ERA of 5.37. Georgetown’s top pitcher is Jack Cushing, and he has a .302 earned-run average and a 4-4 win-loss record. Nick Morreale is tied with Cushing in the most wins for Georgetown this season, as his record is 4-3 with a 4.27 earned-run-average.
The Hoyas swept Maryland Eastern Shore in a doubleheader on Wednesday night at Shirley Povich Field. Georgetown won the first game 13-5 and defeated Maryland Eastern Shore 4-2 in the second half of the doubleheader. Angelo Tonas received the victory in the first game and Jack Weeks was the winning pitcher for Georgetown in the second game.
Be sure to tune into 89.5 FM WSOU at 2:45 p.m. on Friday afternoon for pregame coverage hosted by Wilnir Louis and Heaven Hill, while Matt Ambrose and Jose Feliciano will have the call in Queens.
Michael Daly is the Web Editor for WSOU Sports, and can be reached at michael.daly@student.shu.edu.
