Baseball Falls to Seton Hall 9-3
Seton Hall vs Connecticut (Apr 19, 2008)
STORRS, Conn.
(April 19, 2008)
— The Pirates' Corey Young picked up his sixth win of the
season as he pitched seven innings while striking out six to lead
Seton Hall over the
University of Connecticut baseball team 9-3 in BIG EAST action on
Saturday afternoon at J.O. Christian Field.
UConn falls to 19-21 overall this season and
6-11 in the BIG EAST while Seton Hall improves to
25-13 on the year and 12-5 in conference play.
Seton Hall threatened in the top of the first
as they loaded the bases with two outs. Freshman Dan Mahoney
(Boston, Mass.) walked three straight batters to load the bases but
was able to get out of trouble by striking out Greg Miller to end
the inning. He allowed no hits and struck out three in the half
inning.
The Huskies went on top in the first inning as
freshman Mike Olt (Branford, Conn.) hit the ball down the
right field line which dropped out of the reach of Seton Hall right
fielder, Miller. Elliot Glynn (Los Alamitos, Calif.) scored
on the play as he took off from first on the pitch with two outs on
the board. With Olt’s 37th RBI of the season, UConn took
an early 1-0 lead.
Again, the Pirates gave Mahoney trouble in the
second as they loaded the bases once again with two outs on two
walks and one error. But a groundout to second base by Matt Smedberg
ended the inning, leaving the Pirates scoreless once again.
The Pirates put men in scoring position and
loaded the bases for the third straight inning as Chris Affinito
recorded Seton Hall’s first hit of the game with a single to right
center before three hit batters by Mahoney and one run scored.
With one out in the third, head coach Jim
Penders took out Mahoney and put David Erickson
(Stratford, Conn.) on the mound for the Huskies. Erickson forced
Sean Gusrang into what could have been a double play ball but a
throwing error by freshman Pierre LePage (Wolcott, Conn.)
moved Gusrang to second while allowing two more Pirates to score.
Mahoney left the game after 2.1 innings after allowing two runs, one
hit and five walks after striking out four.
UConn rallied in the bottom of the third as
Harold Brantley, Jr. (Silver Spring, Md.) singled through the
right side of the infield to start off the inning. Both LePage and
Glynn reached base on Seton Hall infield throwing errors to load the
bases with no outs. Senior Pat Mahoney (Des Moines, Iowa)
grounded out into a double play in the next at-bat but was able to
score Brantley from third. Mike Olt followed with a triple to left
field to score Glynn to tie the game at three. Olt’s hit, his 50th
of the season, gave the freshman his 38th career RBI.
Glynn started the bottom of the fifth inning as
he reached base on a Pirate fielding error and was followed by two
walks to load the bases but a groundout to second base by Dale
Brannon (St. Petersburg, Fla.) ended the inning with no runs
scored for the Huskies.
Erickson gave up his first walk in the seventh
with one out during the tied ballgame. A base hit by Affinito put
runners on second and first before Chis Spagnuolo grounded into a
fielder’s choice as Affinito was out at second. Smedburg was able to
score on the next play as Greg Miller lined a base hit into left
field to give the Pirates a 4-3 lead.
Senior Matt Karl (Wallingford, Conn.)
came into the game for Erickson in the seventh as Erickson finished
the game with 4.2 innings thrown, four strikeouts, two hits allowed
and one run scored. Karl came into some trouble in the bottom of the
seventh as the bases were loaded with no outs. After Karl’s first
strikeout of the game and a fielder’s choice to Nemeth at first, who
was able to throw home and get the force out, Affinitio recorded his
third hit of the game and his seventh double of the year as Seton
Hall went up 6-3 with Affinito’s two RBIs in the inning.
Seton Hall picked up three runs in the top of
the ninth as Karl gave up seven hits and four earned runs in one
inning pitched. Freshman Ted Hurvul (Monroe, Conn.) came in
to finish out the ninth inning as he recorded three quick outs for
the Huskies’ defense.
The Huskies tried for a ninth inning rally but
fell short as Seton Hall's Keith Cantwell recorded three straight
outs for his third save of the season.
Seton Hall’s Corey Young went 7.0 innings for
the Pirates as he allowed four hits, two earned runs and four walks,
while striking out six Huskies. With the win, Young improves to 6-2
on the season. Erickson takes the loss as he pitched 4.2 innings as
he gave up one run and two hits.
Olt led the Huskies with two hits and two RBIs
as Brannon and Brantley both added a hit to the team's four-hit
tally. Seton Hall's Affinito went 3-for-4 with two RBIs while
teammates A.J. Rusbarsky, Chris Fontenelli and Greg Miller added two
hits a piece.
UConn will host Seton Hall in the weekend's series finale on Sunday
afternoon at J.O. Christian Field. Game time is set for 12:00 p.m.
-UCONN-
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