Seton Hall used a late game hit barrage to hand 11th-ranked St. John’s its seventh loss of the year on Saturday.
Seton Hall’s Cullen Dana took a shutout into the eighth as he rolled through the Red Storm lineup. What originally looked like a pitcher’s duel in the early innings ended up turning into a convincing 7-0 win for the Pirates.
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“You gotta give that kid credit where credit’s due, we just didn’t have a good approach,” St. John’s Head Coach Ed Blankmeyer said. “We let him settle in and he kind of got his breaking ball in there enough to keep us off balance.”
St. John’s starter Jeff Belge was electric as well through the first five frames. He retired 10 straight Seton Hall batters after opening the game with a walk, and allowed just one hit while striking out six.
But Dana was down for a pitcher’s duel. He matched Belge zero for zero through the first five and kept the Pirates in the game, retiring 13 of 14 St. John’s batters from the first through the fifth.
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Seton Hall finally broke through in the sixth thanks to some timely two-out hitting. With runners on second and third and two outs, designated hitter Matt Fortin laced a double down the left field line, scoring two and breaking the scoreless tie.
First baseman Matt Toke then knocked Belge out of the game with a single up the middle to complete the three-run inning.
“I think he made a bad pitch [to Fortin], I think he was a little tired,” Blankmeyer said on Belge’s final inning.
St. John’s escaped further trouble the following inning, as a pair of walks from reliever Gavin Hollowell left runners on first and second with just one out. However, Hollowell was able to get pinch hitter Ryan Ramiz to ground into an inning-ending double play to neutralize the threat.
Hollowell wouldn’t be able to play Houdini twice, however. He was knocked out of the game in the eighth after a Fortin double extended the Seton Hall lead to 4-0.
The Pirates finally pulled Dana after he ran into trouble in the eighth. Starting the inning with over 100 pitches, he walked leadoff hitter Josh Greene and allowed a soft single to Robbie Knightes.
Entering the game with two runners on and no outs, Seton Hall’s Matt Leon was up to the task. He retired the top three hitters of the Red Storm lineup in order to end the late game threat.
The Pirates tacked on three more runs in their final at-bat, two of them coming on a two-run home run to dead center field from Joe Poduslenko, completing the 7-0 win.
Despite the loss, Blankmeyer was happy with the effort put forward by his freshman lefty Belge, who turned in one of the better starts of his short college career.
“I just think he’s improving,” Blankmeyer said. “We’re putting him in a spot that he’s really not ready for at this particular time. Because of our pitching situation he’s been forced into this, and I was proud of his effort today, I thought he did a very nice job.”
St. John’s will look to rebound in the rubber game of this three-game weekend set tomorrow afternoon.
“Any time [you can] win a series it’s important because what it does is you own the tiebreaker,” Blankmeyer said. “Every game in this conference is important, it’s a struggle.”
