Seton Hall
Seton Hall baseball struggles to 11-1 loss
Date: April 19, 2019
By James Justice
STATEN ISLAND – The Seton Hall baseball team’s pursuit of win number 17 – a number that carries extra meaning this year – will have to wait until tomorrow.
The Pirates introduced special white warmups on Friday morning, ahead of the second game in a three-game series with Creighton. The white t-shirts read “Shep 17” on the front and “Never lose your hustle,” the late Mike Sheppard Sr.’s signature quote, on the back.
On a humid, hazy afternoon at Richmond County Ballpark on the shores of the New York Harbor, the Pirates were sunk by a forgettable seven-run fifth inning and lost, 11-1.
Manager Rob Sheppard juggled his lineup card for five innings, trying to find which pitcher could prove reliable for a prolonged stretch. By the time he stumbled on three perfect relief innings from Sean Miller, the insurmountable deficit had been formed.
Freshman starter David Festa calmly worked through the first inning, but surrendered one run in the second inning and two more in the third. With the Creighton lead three, two runners on and no one out, Festa pitched to contact and got three straight outs, ending his three-inning outing on a bright note.
The damage had been done, though, and Festa picked up the loss for his six hits and three earned runs.
“I don’t consider him a freshman anymore,” Sheppard said. “I think, the difference was, Creighton was really good today. I don’t chalk it up to a freshman on the mound, I just think that they were better and they out-executed us today.”
“David’s better than he threw today, he just had a bad day and it showed.”
A day after mustering only two hits, Seton Hall failed to manifest momentum offensively to rattle Creighton starter Denson Hull. The Pirates did however load the bases in the first inning through a patient walk from junior Matt Toke, whose on-base percentage rose to .410.
“He’s been a mainstay in the middle of our lineup for the last three years,” Sheppard said of Toke. “He’s a guy that we rely upon to have really good at-bats, and he’s been doing a really nice job of it so far.”
But freshman Steve Grober then went down on five pitches, fouling off a 1-2 pitch before biting on an off-speed one. In the next three innings, Seton Hall failed to send more than four batters to the plate. By inning five, when Creighton put up seven runs – six of the seven with two outs – the Pirates had lost all the wind in their sails.
Creighton capitalized on errors and displayed a cunning efficiency, scoring 11 runs with 13 hits. The boisterous Bluejay bench and the dozen or so fans who made the trek from the Missouri River to the Hudson relished the afternoon, while the nine innings dragged for the South Orange side who managed six hits but only one run.
Seton Hall will return to Staten Island one final time this season for its series finale with Creighton tomorrow at 3 p.m. Junior ace Noah Thompson, off a six-inning winning effort in Fort Worth, Texas, against nationally-ranked TCU, will take the mound and aim to salvage the series.
“Every game in conference is really important, and that’s something that we have to pride ourselves on,” Sheppard said.
James Justice can be reached at james.justice@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @JamesJusticeIII.
