Backed by a Casey Dana grand slam in the sixth inning, the Seton Hall baseball team got back into the win column on Wednesday afternoon with a 7-2 victory over Princeton.
Heading into the sixth inning, the Pirates were down 2-0 before the one-out grand slam by Dana. From there, the Pirates never looked back and secured the victory.
On the mound, Nick Payero got the start for the Pirates. The right-handed freshman has had a rough start to the season, but recently picked up two wins against Monmouth and Iona and looked to continue that trend against Princeton.
Payero kept Princeton off the board for the first four innings, striking out four and surrendering only two hits. However, to open the fifth, he gave up a home run before giving up the ball to Tyler Burnham.
From there, Princeton got another run with Burnham on the mound to give itself a 2-0 advantage.
After that, however, the momentum swung in favor of the Pirates. Dana hit the grand slam in the sixth inning, his sixth homer of the season, to give the Pirates the lead.
Following that, Alex Clyde brought home two more runs on a double to make the Pirates’ lead 6-2. The run ended there, but the damage was already done.
Burnham continued to deal for the Pirates after surrendering one run in the prior inning, and he was able to put Princeton down in order prior to Cole Patten taking to the rubber.
Princeton proceeded to threaten with Patten on the mound, loading the bases before Hunter Waldis took over. Waldis proceeded to strike out the final Princeton batter to maintain Seton Hall’s lead, despite the tying run being at the plate.
In the top of the ninth, Sebastiano Santorelli provided more run support for the Pirates, driving home Connor Hood to make it a 7-2 game.
The five-run lead was plenty for Corey Sawyer to handle, as he came in and shut down Princeton to officially bring home the win.
Next, Seton Hall heads to TCU for a three-game series with the Horned Frogs beginning on April 12.
Kevin Kopf can be reached at kevin.kopf@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @KMKTNF.
