WSOU

O'Neill earns first win, Pirates defeat Wagner 11-7

Date: March 20, 2019

By Rob Ruszkowski

 

The Seton Hall baseball team was victorious over the Wagner Seahawks by a score of 11-7 on Tuesday afternoon as they traveled to Richmond County Bank Ballpark in Staten Island, NY.

 

The Pirates were able to get on the scoreboard early after Jerry Huntzinger led off the game with a walk, advanced to third after two wild pitches, and scored on an RBI groundout. Seton Hall increased their lead to 2-0 in the top of the second inning on an RBI double by Mike Esposito.

 

The Seahawks were able to get their first run in the bottom of the third inning off of a sacrifice fly, but the Pirates exploded for four runs and five hits in the fifth inning with RBI singles from Connor Hood, Matt Toke, and Tyler Shedler-McAvoy.

 

Wagner scored two more runs in the bottom half of the fifth, but they were never able to catch Seton Hall as the Pirates were able to get another man home in the top of the sixth on a sacrifice fly from Huntzinger to extend the lead to 7-3.

 

The Seahawks slowly inched closer as they scored one run in both the sixth and seventh innings, and after the Pirates added one more in the top of the eighth, the Seahawks struck back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to trail by just one run as the score was 8-7 heading into the final inning.

 

Seton Hall was able to score three insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning with an RBI double by Shedler-McAvoy and another RBI single by Hood. Corey Sawyer pitched the bottom half of the ninth inning for Seton Hall and struck out three consecutive Seahawks to end the game and earn his third save of the season.

 

The winning pitcher for the Pirates was freshman Brennan O’Neill as he picked up his first collegiate victory after throwing 80 pitches in 5.0 innings, only allowing three runs and two hits while striking out two and walking three batters. The losing pitcher for the Seahawks was Keaton Freire as he gave up five runs and seven hits in just 3.0 innings of work.

 

Overall, Seton Hall out-hit Wagner 14-to-6, and both teams committed four errors in the field. Despite the win, the Pirates left 11 men on base, compared to the Seahawks’ seven. Matt Toke went 3-for-5 on the day with two runs scored, an RBI, and a stolen base. He has hit safely in his last six games and he now has five multi-hit games this year as he leads Seton Hall in both categories. Both Connor Hood and Tyler Shedler-McAvoy finished the game with three RBI’s each.

 

With the win, Seton Hall improves to 4-12 on the season, as Wagner falls to 4-12. The Pirates will take the diamond again on Friday, March 22nd as they will travel to West Long Branch, NJ to face off against Monmouth. The first pitch is set for 3:00 pm.

 

Robert Ruszkowski can be reached at ruszkoro@shu.edu.

Posted in: Baseball, Sports, WSOU

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