Seton Hall Swept by Xavier, Losing Streak Swells to 11

Published: Monday, April 20, 2026

by Thomas Baldacchino

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – The Seton Hall Pirates (11-20, 0-9) fell 3-1 to the Xavier Musketeers (19-22, 9-3) at Mike Sheppard Sr. Stadium on a chilly Sunday afternoon, extending their losing streak to 11.

Mason Christopher started on the bump in the final game of the weekend series against the Musketeers. His outing got off to a good start as Jorge Valdes, the first hitter he faced, grounded out to get things going. Christopher’s clean scorecard would not last long as Clay Burdette sent a no doubter home run to left center field to get the Musketeers on the board in the first.

Christopher threw a scoreless second inning but got back into trouble in the third. After surrendering a leadoff walk, Valdes stole second and advanced to third when the throw down soared into centerfield. He would later score Xavier’s second run of the game on a Josh Stonehouse infield single.

Xavier starter, Ashton Chronister, got off to a great start as Seton Hall could not get anything going offensively at the beginning of the game. The Pirates had four baserunners through the first five innings of play, with only one hit, which came off the bat of Shea Grady.

There were a combined six pitchers who took the mound in the sixth inning, and we saw offense from both teams. After Christopher forced Jonathan Fitz to groundout to start the frame, he walked Peter Johnson which would be the end of the start for Christopher. 

Head Coach Rob Sheppard handed the ball to Matt Pontari, who quite frankly just did not have his best. He walked Luke Hammond before giving up back-to-back singles to Landon Mensik and pinch hitter, Tommy Townsend. Townsend’s hit brought in Peter Johnson to give Christopher his third earned run of the game. 

The Pirates then turned to Stephen Curry to get the last two outs of the inning. Curry only needed one pitch to do so, rolling a 6-4-3 double play to get out of the inning.

Seton Hall headed into the home half of the sixth trailing 3-0 so they needed to make something happen offensively. Things got off to a good start as Shea Grady hit a leadoff single for his second knock of the day. Chronister hit the very next hitter, Ryan Frontera to put runners on first and second. 

The Musketeers sent out Owen Poole to relieve Chronister. Poole would get one out before Xavier went to the pen once more to bring in Garrett Helsel. Helsel walked Frankie Scrivanic to load the bases and gave up a sacrifice fly to Ryan Strnad before getting out of the sixth.

Strnad’s sacrifice fly would go on to be the only Pirates run. Garrett Helsel pitched 3 2/3 innings and acquired his fifth save of the season. Helsel struck out four hitters and only gave up one hit in his exceptional relief outing.

Not only did Sunday’s 3-1 loss increase Seton Hall’s losing streak to 11 games, but it also worsened Seton Hall’s BIG EAST record to 0-9. The Pirates will visit Monmouth on Wednesday and come back home next weekend for a three game set with Villanova, who is tied with The Hall for last place in the BIG EAST.

Thomas Baldacchino can be reached at thomas.baldacchino@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: sports,