Game Preview: Seton Hall looks to avoid sweep to Creighton (4/20/19)

Date: April 20, 2019

By Dalton Allison

For a second straight weekend, it will be in the hands of Noah Thompson to help the Seton Hall baseball team avoid a sweep. This week though, the Pirates are attempting to avoid a sweep to Bluejays rather than Horned Frogs.

The Pirates (16-19) will host their last “home” game at Richmond County Bank Ballpark against Creighton (21-8) on Saturday. Originally slated for a 1 pm start, the game was moved back to a 3 pm start because of the rain that is passing through the area. Seton Hall has already seen plenty of rain this series, as the runs that Creighton has scored so far have come in buckets.

So far in the series, Creighton has scored a combined eight runs in the first three innings of the games that they’ve played. This has dug the Pirates into early holes, holes it seems to them are impossible to escape from. It also does not help that the air of New York Harbor has stagnated the Seton Hall offense. So far in the series, Seton Hall has been outscored 16-2, and outhit 24-8. These are offensive numbers that need to be improved if Seton Hall wants to beat the team with the 19^th best RPI in the nation.

A large key for Seton Hall will be to avoid allowing a big inning to the dangerous Creighton offense. Thanks to a seven-run fifth inning on Saturday, Seton Hall found themselves down 10-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning. They couldn’t manage to fight back against Denson Hull, who has struggled thus far on the season. This probably means that they won’t be able to fight back against Evan Jackson, who is pitching to the tune of a 4-1 record with a 3.89 ERA.

Thompson has a tall task ahead of him in the Creighton lineup. While their run scoring prowess is known, they also tend to be extremely clutch. In that seven-run fifth inning that Creighton dropped on Seton Hall on Friday, six of the runs scored were drove in with two outs on the scoreboard. Letting runs score with two outs on the board has been a problem this week for Seton Hall, and it needs to end if they want any chance of winning.

Coverage of the game will begin at 2:45 pm on 89.5 FM WSOU. Live from Staten Island and on the call will be Wilnir Louis and Bob Towey.

Dalton Allison can be reached at dalton.allison@student.shu.edu

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