Box score

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ—Five pitchers for host Seton Hall combined to pitch a one-hit 3-0 shutout against visiting NJIT Sunday afternoon on the final day of the annual Strike Out Cancer tournament played on the Seton Hall campus at Owen T. Carroll Field.
 
Seton Hall, the 2011 Big East Conference tournament champion and a participant in the 2011 NCAA Division I Tournament, did all of its scoring in the first three innings. The Pirates picked up all the runs they would need with a marker in the bottom of the first inning and then they added two more runs in the bottom of the third.
 
The Pirates, who won all three of the games they played in the Strikeout Cancer Tournament, beating Fordham (5-0), Maine (6-4), and then NJIT (3-0), are 9-9, having won their last four games. NJIT is 4-8, with six straight losses—three at Presbyterian last weekend in South Carolina; 12-7 at #24 Wake Forest on Wednesday; 3-2 in 11 innings against Maine, another 2011 NCAA team, on Friday in the Strike Out Cancer Tournament; and, then 3-0 vs. Seton Hall on Sunday.
 
Seton Hall freshman RHP Jose Lopez (2-0) pitched the first six innings for SHU, allowing the only Highlander hit, a one-out double for freshman 2B Mike Rampone in the third inning. Lopez struck out seven and walked one, but he hit three NJIT batters.
 
 Indeed, while they got only the Rampone hit, the Highlanders collected four hit by pitch and four walks and actually left more men on base than victorious Seton Hall (8-7).
 
Anthony Elia, Connor Delepine, George Fernandez, and Benny Mejia all followed Lopez to the mound for Seton Hall and Mejia, a senior RHP, was credited with his first save of the season after closing the ninth inning with no hits, no runs and one walk allowed.
 
For NJIT, junior RHP Mark Leiter, Jr. started and took the loss. He is 2-2 after working 6.1 innings on Sunday, with seven hits, three runs allowed (two earned), with a walk and five strikeouts. Leiter has gone at least six innings in each of his first four starts and owns a 3.08 ERA on the season.
 
He was relieved by the impressive freshman RHP Bill VanMeerbeke, who retired all five batters he faced on Sunday, lowering his ERA to 3.12. The rookie, who has 11 strikeouts and just one walk in 8.2 innings, has held the opposition scoreless in three of his four appearances. The only team to score on him has been #24 Wake Forest, which got two runs against him in his first inning and one run at the end of his appearance, but had three scoreless innings in between, with six strikeouts in four innings against the powerful Demon Deacons.
 
Rampone, who has hit safely in nine of 11 games to open his college career, finished 1-for-3 batting in the leadoff slot against Seton Hall on Sunday. His double was the only extra-base hit for either team.
 
Seton Hall got seven hits, led by three from freshman 1B Sal Annunziata, who finished 3-for-4 and drove in two of the Pirate runs with RBI singles in the first and third innings, respectively. The other Seton Hall run came home on a third-inning single by junior LF Ryan Sullivan.
 
NJIT got two baserunners in the top of the first inning, when James D'Aloia was hit by a pitch with two outs and Tom Bouck walked behind him. However, Lopez avoided any damage with a strikeout to end the inning.
 
The Pirates made the Highlanders pay right away in the bottom of the opening inning. With one out, Mike Genovese reached first on what would be NJIT's only fielding error of the day. Will Walsh then hit into a fielder's choice, replacing Genovese as the baserunner at first. Walsh stole second base and then scored on Annunziata's two-out single up the middle.
 
NJIT got its only hit of the day when Rampone doubled down the left field line with one out in the third inning and he moved over to third on a ground out. However, Lopez, as he had in the first inning, got a strikeout to end the inning and strand a Highlander in scoring position.
 
Seton Hall's sophomore CF Zack Granite, named all-Big East Tournament in 2011 as a freshman, got the home half of the third going with a one-out infield single. He then stole two bases to get to third with one out. However, he was out at home on a fielder's choice grounder by Genovese to NJIT 3B Matt Weckerle.
 
But Leiter and the Highlanders were not out of trouble. Despite having two outs and a runner on first base. Walsh was hit by a pitch, pushing Genovese to second base and Annunziata singled, bringing home Genovese with the second Pirate run. Sullivan followed Annunziata with another single, plating the third, and final, run of the day.
 
NJIT left two men on base in the next half-inning, when Bryan Bleakley and Brian Keane were hit by pitches with two outs. Again, Lopez got the third out, marking the third inning in the first four that he escaped with NJIT runners in scoring position by getting the crucial third out.
 
The biggest threat for the Highlanders the rest of the way came in the eighth inning, when Rampone was hit by a pitch leading off. However, Weckerle followed by lining into a double play ahead of a walk to D'Aloia. Again, the two-out hit was not there for NJIT on this day, as the inning ended with a strikeout, the 10th of the day for the Pirates and the third to end an inning with NJIT runners on base.

After the tournament ended, Mike Rampone of NJIT was one of six players from the four participating teams to receive mention on the all-tournament team. The freshman batted .429 (3-for-7), with two doubles and a run scored in the two games for Highlanders. Seton Hall junior RHP Jon Prosinski, who tossed a complete-game, five-hit shutout in the opening game vs. Fordham, was named tournament Most Outstanding Player.
 
Next up for the Highlanders, who played the Strike Out Cancer tournament in neighboring South Orange, NJ, is another short road trip, when they travel less than 10 miles east to Jersey City for a doubleheader at Saint Peter's on Saturday with a scheduled start time of 1 pm.