Seton Hall
Seton Hall loses to St. John's in difficult fashion
Date: May 18, 2019By Dalton Allison
A day that looked promising for Seton Hall ended in heart-breaking fashion, as they fell to St. John’s 7-6 at Jack Kaiser Stadium in Queens, New York.
Playing on a field that they have known as home for the entire season, Seton Hall finally suffered from being the away team on the campus of St. John’s. Entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Seton Hall led St. John’s 6-3. The Johnnies, having the last licks, took advantage of shaky outings from Sean Miller and Corey Sawyer.
The rally started when Casey Dana committed a throwing error on the first ball struck to the infield in the bottom of the ninth. This single error opened up the floodgates for St. John’s, who strung together hits and sacrifices until they were down 6-5 with two outs in the inning. With St. John’s down to their last strike with runners on second and third, Ryan Hogan laced a ball towards the right side of the infield. The best that Matt Toke could do was put a mitt on the ball, and the Red Storm took home the victory in walk-off fashion.
For most of the day, it was Seton Hall that was in control of the offense. Things had remained scoreless until the fifth inning, when Seton Hall was able to string together a three-run rally. With two outs, Tyler Shedler-McAvoy drove a single up the middle to score Chris Villa, which put the Pirates up 1-0. The lead would increase in the next at bat, when Christian Del Castillo ripped a triple that scored Shedler-McAvoy. This 2-0 lead increased to 3-0 in the next at bat, when Dana reached on an error.
With St. John’s getting on the board in the bottom of the fifth, the score would remain the same until the eighth. That’s when Steve Grober blasted a two-run shot to make the score 5-1. St. John’s would again tag more runs on in the bottom of the eighth, bringing the score to 5-3. The following inning is where they would become victorious.
Brennan O’Neill started for the Pirates, and despite only being allowed 56 pitches in his four innings of work, pitched efficiently. O’Neill wasn’t the only impressive pitcher for the Pirates, as Nick Payero threw three quality innings of relief for Seton Hall.
Following the loss, Seton Hall will look to avoid the sweep on Saturday at 1 pm. Chris Russo and Jose Feliciano will have the call, with in-studio coverage beginning at 12:45 are Ronny Castaneda and Dalton Allison.
Dalton Allison is the Sports Director at 89.5 FM WSOU, and can be reached at wsousports@gmail.com.
