The Seton Hall baseball team swept its doubleheader today to come closer to a postseason berth, defeating Georgetown 7-1 in game one and 6-2 in game two. Today’s wins followed a narrow 6-5 triumph against Georgetown yesterday and completed a three game sweep of the Hoyas.
Both games were highlighted by stellar outings from Pirate starting pitchers. Noah Thompson started game one and allowed four hits in six shutout innings. David Festa allowed one run on five hits in seven innings of work in game two.
Steve Grober and Tyler Shedler-McAvoy led the offense for the Pirates in game one. Grober went 3-for-4 with a run scored and two RBI’s, and Shedler-McAvoy was 2-for-4 with two doubles, a run scored and two RBI’s as well.
Shedler-McAvoy hit a one-out double in the bottom of the first and came around to score after a ground out and a wild pitch to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Jerry Huntzinger singled to bring home Grober and increase the lead to 2-0 in the fifth. Shedler-McAvoy followed with a two-run double that gave the Pirates a 4-0 cushion, which was more than enough with how Thompson was pitching.
Thompson gave way after six innings and Tyler Burnham finished off the final three, allowing one run and picking up the save.
In game two, Festa’s strong outing was supported by a 3-for-4 day from Matt Toke and 2 RBI’s each from Shedler-McAvoy and Christian Del Castillo. Grober also went 2-for-4.
Shedler-McAvoy got things started early in the first by reaching on a walk, stealing second, advancing to third on an error, and scoring on a sacrifice fly by Del Castillo. After Georgetown tied the game at one, the Pirates took the lead on an error that scored Chris Villa and an RBI single by Del Castillo.
Festa, Hunter Waldis, and Sean Miller held the Hoyas at bay from there and the Pirates added three more insurance runs to close out the series sweep.
With the sweep against Georgetown, the Pirates are now 25-23 heading into a three-game series against St. John’s next weekend in Queens.
Matthew Collins can be reached at matthew.collins@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @Matt98533108.
