Pirates Come Up Empty in Road Trip to Louisville

Published: Monday, March 9, 2026

by Ross Vocaturo

LOUISVILLE, K.Y. - The Seton Hall Pirates (4-7) were swept by the Louisville Cardinals (10-5) over the weekend. The three-game skid dropped the Pirates as many games below .500 in their final stretch before touching down in the Garden State this season. 

Game one of the series saw the minimum, as the Cardinals routed the Pirates 16-1 in seven innings due to the run rule. 

After both teams exchanged zeros in the first inning, the Cardinals wasted no time loading the bases. Sophomore starter Steven Svenson then recorded consecutive outs (the latter being an RBI force out from second baseman Kade Elam), before things completely fell apart: an error by second baseman Shea Grady brought in a second run to score. Three hit-batters, a double, and a single later, and the Pirates were suddenly down 7-0 before the third inning. 

Seton Hall was able to get one back in the top of the third on a Nick Tomaset RBI double, but the comeback effort was short lived as Louisville would tack on an additional seven runs in the bottom half of the inning, highlighted by multi-run RBIs by Tague Davis and Griffin Crain. Louisville added insurance in the fifth and sixth innings, but the damage was already done, and the game was called in the seventh. 

Game two did not go much better for the Pirates, as déjà vu struck during another seven-run second inning from Louisville. Similar to Svenson the night prior, southpaw Jayden Barroqueiro did not see past the second inning in his start. Junior third baseman Ryan Frontera’s RBI single in the third, along with junior Gabe Cavazzoni’s RBI triple in the fourth, got The Hall back in the ballgame momentarily. 

However, Louisville got three runs of insurance in the fifth, and back-to-back RBI singles by George Baker and Elam in the eighth gave Louisville another 13-3 win via the run rule in consecutive days. 

Game three was the most competitive of the weekend by a country mile. Once again, the Pirates surrendered the first lead of the game (in the second inning once again). This time however, the damage was kept to the lone run, via a throwing error by Pirates second baseman Ty Acker. 

Louisville did tack on another run in the third on a leadoff homer from the first baseman Davis, his second homer of the series. Louisville added three more unanswered runs before the Pirates finally erased their goose egg on the scoreboard with a one-out RBI single from sophomore shortstop Tommy Manzo. Aidan Dill, the sophomore right fielder, came around to score via a throwing error in the eighth, and the Pirates were only down four in the later innings. Louisville would ultimately hold on to win the game 6-2, and sweep the three-game slate.  

Seton Hall will look to bounce back against NJIT at Yogi Berra Stadium in Little Falls on Wednesday, with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m.

Ross Vocaturo can be reached at ross.vocaturo@student.shu.edu.

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