Box score

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ—The runs were hard to come by in the final game of the third annual Strike Out Cancer baseball Tournament, but host Seton Hall had just enough for a 2-1 win over NJIT to close out the three-day four-team affair.

 

In addition to the rebuilding Highlanders (2-8), the tournament featured three strong teams from the New York metropolitan area, including the host Pirates, who play in the Big East Conference and are 8-9 after winning their three games in the tournament. The other two were Stony Brook, 10-5 after going 2-1 in the tournament, and Fordham, 12-7 after a 1-2 showing in the tournament.

 

Although NJIT was 0-3 in the tournament, it rebounded from a dismal 14-1 no-hit loss on Friday against Stony Brook to battle in two hard-luck defeats against quality opposition on Sunday. The Highlanders began the day with a 7-6 11-inning defeat against Fordham and then suffered the airtight 2-1 loss in the afternoon against Seton Hall.

 

Sophomore LHP Tripp Davis again pitched like an ace for the Highlanders, going the distance in the 2-1 loss to the Big East foe, allowing 7 hits, 2 runs, and 3 walks in 8 innings, while striking out 3.

 

His season record is 1-4, but Davis has deserved better, pitching to a solid 3.73 earned run average with 23 strikeouts and just 9 walks in 31.1 innings. His team has managed just 8 total runs of support in his 5 starts and his other complete game was his win, a 3-0 nine-inning gem against Fairleigh Dickinson.

 

The winning pitcher for the Pirates was starter Greg Terhune (1-3), who allowed the single unearned run in 7.1 innings, with 6 hits, no walks and 5 strikeouts. Reliever Frank Morris got two outs without a run and Ryan Harvey picked up his third save of the season with a perfect ninth inning that finished off with a pair of strikeouts.

 

Each team collected seven hits, with senior leadoff man SS Matt Tomczyk pacing NJIT with a pair of hits. For victorious Seton Hall, its leadoff hitter, CF Zack Granite, and 3B Giuseppe Papaccio each had a pair of hits. RF Dale Anderson was hitless, but drove in both Pirate runs, bringing in the first on a fielder's choice in the first inning and then the game-winner with a one-out sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning.

 

Seton Hall got its first run in the opening frame, as Granite led off with an infield single and then stole second base. 2B Mike Genovese followed with a single up the middle that pushed Granite to third base. Anderson's grounder to shortstop resulted in force out at second base, with Granite crossing the plate with the first run.

 

NJIT drew even in the top of the second inning, as freshman RF Matt Weckerle launched a one-out double down the right field line. DJ Roche singled to shortstop and Weckerle came around on an error on the play for an unearned run.

 

The two starting pitchers matched zeros until the bottom of the seventh inning, when, with one out, Seton Hall LF Ryan Sullivan, batting in the ninth slot, dropped down a bunt single. Granite followed with his second hit of the day and then the Pirates loaded the bases on a fielder's choice play, setting up Anderson's sacrifice fly to center field to make the score 2-1 for The Hall.

 

NJIT DH Anthony Caiola singled with one out in the eighth inning, but he was erased on a double play that ended the inning and Harvey, the SHU closer, had a clean ninth inning to record the save.

 

Next up for the Highlanders is a 4 pm game on Wednesday at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium in downtown Newark, when NJIT is scheduled to host Siena, a 27-win team a year ago.