Seton Hall
Pirates get out-dueled, drop to Dayton 2-1
Date: February 23, 2019By Erin Kelly
The Seton Hall Pirates lost their fifth straight game as their lineup fell silent against the Dayton Flyers 2-1 Saturday afternoon.
Freshman Cole Patten made his first collegiate start and faced challenges right from the beginning. In the first inning, Patten saw two men get on but left them both on base. In the second inning, the righty allowed a runner on first due to an error, resulting in an unearned run and a 1-0 Dayton lead. Patten loaded the bases but ended his last inning with a strikeout, his fourth in the game.
In the third, freshman David Festa took the mound and matched up with Dayton’s junior Hunter Wolfe. The righty walked two in the third with Dayton unable to bring them across. Festa pitched a clean fourth and fifth inning to end his day with four strikeouts having faced 10 batters.
The Pirates only offensive attack came in the bottom of the fifth inning. First baseman Matt Toke started the inning with a groundout to shortstop. Huntzinger singled up the middle and later stole second putting himself into scoring position with one out. Second baseman Alex Clyde singled on the left allowing Huntzinger to score, tying Dayton 1-1. The Pirates would leave Clyde on base, the freshman being the only player the Pirates left stranded.
Tyler Burham entered the game in the sixth innings, keeping Dayton at bay. The sophomore added four more strikeouts to the Pirates total and only walked two batters between the two innings he pitched.
In the top of the eighth inning, Mark Diaz entered the game and eventually picked up the loss. With the score tied at 1-1, the freshman walked Dayton’s Riley Tirotta followed by the runner stealing second. After allowing the base runner, lefty Corey Sawyer took the mound. Sawyer walked another batter and struck out another to make it two on with two out for Jay Curtis. Curtis singled allowing Tirotta to score and for Dayton to take a 2-1 lead.
Diaz picked up first loss of the season while Wolfe of the Flyers pitched a complete game striking out 11 and allowing four hits. The Pirates allowed three hits, struck out 15, and made Dayton leave 10 men on. Huntzinger went 2-of-3 on the day with two singles and scoring a run while Clyde picked up his third RBI, tying him for the team lead with Casey Dana.
The Pirates are now 0-5 on the young season and look to pick up their first win of the season next weekend as they start a three-game series against Virginia on March 1st.
Erin Kelly can be reached at erin.kelly@student.shu.edu.
