WSOU

Pirates pull of thrilling 6-5 victory over Georgetown in 10

Date: May 11, 2019

By Michael Daly

Sebastiano Santorelli hit a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Pirates a much-needed victory over Georgetown. Seton Hall baseball defeated Georgetown 6-5 on Friday afternoon at Jack Kaiser Stadium in Queens, New York.

Ricky DeVito and Jeremiah Burke engaged in a pitcher’s duel at the beginning of the game, as both teams had one combined hit through the first two innings. Georgetown broke the tie in the top of the third inning after Kyle Ruedsili flew out to left field, and Alex Rosen tagged up from third base to make the score 1-0.

In the top of the fourth inning, Matt Stone’s single up the middle brought in Freddy Achecar III from second base. Georgetown extended their lead over the Pirates to 2-0. The Pirates scored in the bottom half of the fourth due to an errant throw to third base by Georgetown’s shortstop Rosen, cutting into the deficit, 2-1.   

Santorelli broke up Burke’s no-hitter in the bottom of the fifth inning with a leadoff double. Santorelli would later come around to score on a single into left field by Chris Villa, tying the score at 2-2. The Pirates took the lead, 3-2, off of a Jerry Huntzinger RBI single into left field that scored Steve Grober with one out. Casey Dana blasted a leadoff solo home run over the wall in left-center field that added on to the Pirates’ lead, and the score was 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth.

Blake Espinal entered the game to replace DeVito in the top of the seventh inning after the starter logged 6.0 innings on the mound. Espinal threw a wild pitch that scored Rosen and cut the Hoyas ’deficit to one-run, 4-3. Eddie McCabe tied the game at four with an RBI single up the middle that scored Ryan Weisenberg. Achecar III singled into left field and Ruedsili crossed the plate to give Georgetown a 5-4 lead.      

The Georgetown Hoyas loaded the bases with a walk, single, and a hit-by-pitch, but Corey Sawyer worked out of the jam and kept Seton Hall’s deficit at one-run, 5-4, in the top of the eighth. With Tyler Shedler-Mcavoy on third base, Matt Toke dropped a sacrifice bunt down the first base line and Shedler-Mcavoy advanced 90 feet, which tied the game up at 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth.

Georgetown left two runners stranded in scoring position in the top of the ninth after Weisenberg grounded into a double play with one out. For Seton Hall’s offensive stand, Grober legged out an infield single to shortstop with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but the next two Pirate hitters struck out and popped out to bring the game into extra innings.  

The Pirates had two outs against them with runners on the corners in the bottom of the 10th, when Santorelli’s RBI single to right-center field drove in the game-winning run to seal a 6-5 extra inning victory over Georgetown. Ryan McKlinskey picked up the victory for his 2.0 innings pitched in relief for Seton Hall and his season record stands at 1-3.  

Coach Sheppard spoke on Santorelli’s clutch performance at the end of the game. “He knows he wants to swing early in the count, and he got ahead of the pitcher.”  

When asked about his team’s mentality heading into a crucial doubleheader on Saturday, coach Sheppard said “I tell our guys to be in the moment and take it one game at a time. We have to understand what we are doing at that particular time, as opposed to the result.”

The Pirates are now 23-23 on the season following Friday’s victory and are 7-6 in Big East play. Seton Hall will play their final two home games on Saturday in a doubleheader against Georgetown at Jack Kaiser Field. The first half of Saturday’s doubleheader will begin at 12 p.m. and the second game is slated for a 4 p.m. start. Frank Frasco and Chris Russo will be on the call for the doubleheader.

Michael Daly is the Web Editor for WSOU Sports, and can be reached at michael.daly@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Baseball, Sports, WSOU

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