Baseball Rallies Past Butler, 6-4

[Halldan1]

Freshman Ryan Ramiz goes 2-for-4 and drives in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning.

Ryan Ramiz

April 17, 2015

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SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. -- Freshman Ryan Ramiz (Freehold, N.J.) went 2-for-4 and drove in the go-ahead run as the Seton Hall baseball team rallied to defeat Butler, 6-4, on Friday.

After trailing 4-2 in the fourth inning, Seton Hall reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Tyler Boyd (Succasunna, N.J.) singled up the middle. Alex Falconi (Freeport, N.Y.), making his first start since injuring his shoulder nearly two weeks ago, followed with a double to deep right field, which advanced Boyd to third base. Ramiz then hit a slow chopper towards first base for the second out, but Boyd scored to give the Pirates a 5-4 lead.

Kyle Grimm (Bergenfield, N.J.) delivered a two-out RBI single up the middle to score Joe Poduslenko (Glen Mills, Pa.) with a key insurance run in the bottom of the eighth to extend The Hall's lead to 6-4.

With the victory, Seton Hall improves to 5-2 in the BIG EAST Conference and 18-13 overall.

Seton Hall got on the board first and took a 2-0 lead with single runs in the bottom of the first and second innings. It appeared however, as though the Pirates were going to break through with more than just a single run in the second. With one out, Falconi was hit by a pitch. Ramiz followed with a double down the right field line, which advanced Falconi to third base. Derek Jenkins (Annandale, N.J.) reached on a bunt single to load the bases. Zack Weigel (Oak Park, Ill.) was walked to force in the Pirates' second run. But both Poduslenko and D.J. Ruhlman (Belle Mead, N.J.) struck out to end the inning and leave the bases full.

In the top of the fourth inning, Seton Hall starter Zach Prendergast (Horsham, Pa.) ran into trouble. He allowed Butler's first run, but appeared poised to limit the damage after recording a strikeout for the second out of the inning. But Butler's Austin Miller followed with a three-run home run to give the Bulldogs a 4-2 lead.

Prendergast recovered however, and pitched three scoreless innings after Butler's fourth inning outburst. In all, the right-hander pitched seven innings and gave up four runs, but none of them were earned. He also matched his career high with seven strikeouts and issued just one walk. It's the sixth time in eight starts this season that Prendergast has gone at least seven innings.

Ramiz singled to lead off the bottom half of the fourth, advanced to second on an error by Butler's second baseman, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI ground out by Poduslenko to cut the Bulldogs' lead to 4-3.

In the sixth inning, the control of Butler starter Jeff Schank started to fail him. Jenkins drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a Weigel ground out. After Jenkins stole third base, his second of the game, Poduslenko delivered a sacrifice fly to plate Jenkins with the tying run.

Jenkins was the lone Pirate to reach base three times. He went 1-for-2 with two walks, two stolen bases and a run scored.

Freshman Matt Leon (Staten Island, N.Y.) worked a perfect eighth inning and senior Anthony Elia (Flanders, N.J.) pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his second save of the season. In seven BIG EAST games, the Seton Hall bullpen has given up only two earned runs.

Seton Hall will return to action tomorrow when it resumes its three-game series with Butler. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.

http://www.shupirates.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/041715aaa.html

 

[NYC Pirate]

The baseball team has split the first 2 games of the series against Butler. On Saturday they lost to Butler 1-0
in South Orange.

It's hard to gauge this year's team to some degree. It's not really a rebuilding year maybe it was supposed to be on
the mound if anything. What is clear is that the young pitchers have elevated and the future looks so bright for the Seton Hall Baseball program. So that is a great starting point.

The disappointing aspect of this year's club has been the offense. Some of the stat lines are respectable, but they are really struggling against good pitching. They still approach the game from a National league style a staple of the program, but have had a tough time against the better teams in mustering big innings at the plate.

They have good hitters, but they must approach their at bats with a better sense of what they want to do at the plate. You can't give your at bats away. You have to go to the plate with a little more hostility for lack of a better word. Sometimes batters do too many drills and get caught up in mechanical batting practice swings. There are guys on this team that can certainly do more damage at the plate. You have to hit against all types of pitchers not just the mediocre ones. The most important thing is to hit line drives and hit the ball as hard as possible. So if your striking out constantly or having weak at bats you must make adjustments that allow you to hit those line drives.

They have some good hitters also from the left side, but are missing that destructive guy in the middle of the order from that left side. This needs to be a priority for recruiting. They need to pick it up and be playing their best baseball at the time of the BigEast Tournament.

 

[Flnj86]

The SHU baseball team were really swinging the bats in Florida. They scored over 10 runs each game, they were hitting the ball hard with home runs,doubles and other hard hit balls. The pitching was not as strong as it has been recently, hard to explain how they lost two games recently when they only gave up 1 run both times in 9 innings. The big hitters for SHU hit over .500 in Florida, now freshmen Ryan Ramiz is hitting the ball while the players that you would expect to hit coming into the season are struggling. We need the players that have hit last season and in Florida to start hitting better now.

 

[NYC Pirate]

They did have a good tail end of that trip in Florida, but anytime they are playing a quality program the offense is struggling. Plus they've had a couple of tough games against programs that they should beat. The good news is that a few of those players have good offensive track records so maybe they'll close the season on an upswing. SHU can still be a dangerous team the rest of the way.

 

[NYC Pirate]

They lose the 3rd game of the series 3-1. Just can't get any clutch hits from the middle of the order right now. A work in progress

 

[Flnj86]

Experienced hitters that had very good seasons in the past are struggling at the plate with runners in scoring position. Our freshmen pitchers are pitching better than I expected right now and the bullpen is pitching great.

 

[NYC Pirate]

You got it. Spot on