Seton Hall stomps Panthers in Big East road series over weekend

Three strikes, you’re out. Three losses, you’re gone.

A staggering offense didn’t help Pitt… Three strikes, you’re out. Three losses, you’re gone.

A staggering offense didn’t help Pitt baseball (8-17, 2-7 Big East) this weekend as it traveled to South Orange, N.J., to take on the Seton Hall Pirates and dropped three key conference games in a row.

Sophomore Nate Reed started for Pitt in the first game, holding Seton Hall (18-12, 8-4) to only one run through 6 2/3 innings. He threw eight strikeouts, but the Pirates escaped with a 1-0 win.

Seton Hall 1, Pitt 0

The first hit and the first chance at scoring came at the top of the second, when Pitt junior Morgan Kielty hit a single through the right side and senior Dan Williams followed behind him with a walk.

Both advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Chris Junior, but nobody scored after a fielder’s choice and Williams was picked off second base.

A chance to score came again in the third as the bases were loaded after Nick Mullins walked, Jordan Herr singled and Sean Conley walked, but shortstop Danny Lopez hit a ground ball to Seton Hall shortstop AJ Rusbarsky that turned into a double play.

The first and only run of the day came at the bottom of the fifth inning when the first batter, Seton Hall’s Dan Lopez, was hit by a pitch and advanced around the bases to third before Matt Smedberg scored him with an RBI single to right field.

After the Pirates took the lead, the Panthers had two more chances to score, but neither ended up being successful. In the top of the sixth, Lopez walked and advanced to third after a single to right field by Kielty, but a fly out and a foul out to first base didn’t allow either to score.

In the eighth, Conley, who was recently honored with the Dick Kadis award, which is given to an outstanding athlete from Beaver County, a county just outside Pittsburgh, and Lopez both singled and advanced to second and third after a Kielty sacrifice bunt. But Lopez was picked off at second and Chris Warner grounded out.

Seton Hall 3, Pitt 0

The Panthers didn’t score during their second game in the series on Saturday either, as Seton Hall won again, 3-0. It was starting pitcher Rob Brant’s third loss of the season.

Pitt only managed two hits in the game, as Seton Hall’s Corey Young picked up the complete-game win.

The Panthers put some pressure on the Pirates in the sixth inning. They came close to scoring the first run of the game. Redshirt freshman Zach Duggan singled and Herr was hit by a pitch, then both advanced on Conley’s ground out to second. The momentum ended shortly thereafter as Young struck out Lopez to end the inning.

Seton Hall answered with all three of its runs in the same inning. Chris Fontinelli started off with a single to left field and advanced to second on the freshman Rusbarsky’s sacrifice bunt. Mark Pappas singled, putting runners on first and third, and a walk to Chris Affinito loaded the bases.

Greg Miller flew out to right field next, scoring Fontinelli and giving the Pirates the 1-0 lead. Matt Smedberg followed up with a two-out, two-run triple, making the score 3-0.

That was all the Pirates needed.

Seton Hall 15, Pitt 5

In yesterday’s final game, the highest scoring game of the series, Seton Hall swept the series, winning, 15-5.

Pitt scored the first run of the game in the second inning. Warner doubled and scored on freshman Joe Leonard’s RBI single. Seton Hall scored four unanswered runs in both the fourth and sixth innings.

Pitt answered in the seventh inning, scoring two unearned runs. Dan Williams recorded the first one on Nick Mullins’ walk and the second came from Leonard on Conley’s walk.

Seton Hall scored two more in the seventh and four in the eighth, giving it the win.

Pitt will take on Duquesne at Trees Field on Tuesday at 3 p.m.