Baseball: Pirates’ pitching shuts Tigers down

A pitching duel of sophomore left-handers seemed to be in the making early on, when Seton Hall’s Anthony Elia and Princeton’s Tyler Foote pitched 1-2-3 first innings. Foote had set himself up for another 1-2-3 inning in the third after striking out his first two batters, but a single and a walk brought up the Pirates’ shortstop Giuseppe Papaccio, a member of last season’s All-Big East third team. Papaccio smacked an RBI double down the leftfield line, and second baseman Mike Genovese followed with a two-run single to put Seton Hall up by three going into the fourth inning.

Elia remained strong through five innings, surrendering only two hits and fanning eight. A strong bullpen struck out seven more and only allowed one hit over the last four innings.

“We just didn’t hit,” senior outfielder Johnny Mishu said. “Our pitching was definitely good enough to win today. But three hits isn’t going to win any ball game.”

“We have to start swinging the bats,” senior right fielder Steve Harrington said. “We need to keep the momentum going from last weekend.”

The Tigers’ best chance to score came in the eighth inning, when freshman second baseman Danny Hoy started off by reaching base on a throwing error. After junior first baseman Mike Ford walked and senior designated hitter Alex Flink hit a single up the middle, the Tigers found themselves with the bases loaded and only one out. They failed to capitalize, however, as a strikeout and a fielder’s choice dashed any chances of closing the gap.

The bottom half of the eighth inning saw Seton Hall increase their lead with the help of RBI singles from center fielder Zack Granite and first baseman Chris Selden. The Tigers’ offense could not spark anything in the top of the ninth, as Seton Hall retired the first three batters to end the game.

“The pitching we faced today wasn’t outstanding — we just didn’t capitalize,” freshman shortstop Billy Arendt said. “One good thing that came out of today’s game was that our regular bullpen guys saw some more action and had a pretty good showing.”

Princeton used four different relievers, including freshman Luke Strieber, who went two innings and allowed only one hit and no runs. While the offense may not have come away feeling good, the rookie’s solid outing was good news for the defense.

The Tigers hope to continue their strong performance in Ivy League competition this weekend, as they meet Dartmouth in a Saturday doubleheader in Hanover, N.H., and then head to Cambridge on Sunday for a doubleheader against Harvard. Despite the strong conference start, today’s game serves as a reminder of the focus that the Tigers will need to get through the weekend.

“We know we’ll get good pitching this weekend,” Harrington said. “So it’s up to the offense to start clicking.”

“Going into this weekend, we like our four guys going on the mound,” Mishu said. “At the plate, hitting is contagious. We need to string together some quality at-bats and put pressure on the opposing pitcher and defense every inning.”