Seton Hall
Pirates take down Liberty, 5-4
Date: February 22, 2020By: Rony Jerez
The Seton Hall Pirates traveled to Lynchburg, Va., to face off against the Liberty University Flames and came away with a 5-4 victory. Entering Friday’s game, the Pirates came off two straight rout wins after dropping their first game against No. 20 Wake Forest.
In their past two games, Seton Hall exploded for 27 total runs while only forfeiting three total runs to their opponents. Mason Meyer took the mound for the Flames; however, the Pirates took an early first inning lead.
Tyler Shedler-McAvoy got the offense started with a single to third base and the hit led to Matt Toke poking a single to right field to put the runners on the corners. Third baseman Casey Dana then shot a single to center field that scored Shedler-McAvoy and get the Pirates on the board 1-0.
Ryan Mclinskey started the game for the Pirates and worked a one-two-three inning with two strikeouts in the first inning. After all three Pirate batters struck out in the top of the second inning, Mclinskey worked around a hit-by-pitch and stolen base to come away with a hitless inning.
In the top of the third, Pirates catcher Jerry Huntzinger roped a double down the line to start the inning. After Huntzinger stole third base, Matt Toke gets his second single of the game to score the runner easily and increase the lead to 2-0.
The offense continued for Seton Hall heading into the top of the fourth after Esposito hit a two-out double to left field. Then, Alex Clyde hit one to Liberty’s second baseman Trey McDyre and he threw the ball away, allowing Esposito to score and the lead jumped to 3-0.
The Flames responded right back with a lead-off triple by Ben Highfill. Highfill scored on the groundout to third base by Locklear to make it 3-1. Brandon Rohrer belts one off Mclinskey over the right field wall off the first pitch to make it a one run game, 3-2.
The pitching on both sides held both offenses scoreless until the top of the seventh. Toke started a rally for Seton Hall with a two-out walk and advanced to second base after the Dana single.
Steve Grober knocked an RBI single into right field, scoring Toke and moving Dana to third. Connor Hood gets his own RBI single to second base, scoring Dana. The Pirates were ahead 5-2.
Liberty tacked on one run in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI groundout by Gray Betts to make it 5-3. After a scoreless eighth inning for Seton Hall, Liberty made it a one run game after Rohrer hit a two-out single with two men on base. The Pirates led Liberty, 5-4 Pirates.
Corey Sawyer took the mound in the bottom of the ninth for the Pirates and recorded the save to secure the Pirates’ 5-4 victory over the Liberty Flames. The Pirates are now 3-1 as they have won three straight. They look to make it four straight wins as they play Liberty on Saturday in Lynchburg, Va., at 2 p.m.
Rony Jerez can be reached at rony.jerez@student.shu.edu.
