Mark Pappas took a Will Hirsch (Virginia Beach/Nansemond River) fastball over the
left-field fence on a 2-0 count Sunday at The Diamond. That grand slam delivered Seton
Hall a 4-0 third-inning lead, and the Pirates never looked back en route to a 4-1 win.
“I wasn’t locating well,” Hirsch said. “I tried to put the ball inside, tried to put it
farther inside and it didn’t go there.”
Pappas’ grand slam was the third the Rams allowed in their last three games.
“That inning really summed up our weekend,” said VCU coach Paul Keyes. “We
were snakebitten.”
The Rams downed the Pirates 8-3 Friday, but dropped a double-header Saturday to
Bucknell, 12-3 and 10-7.
Joe Van Meter (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Dominic) hit a one-out double for the Rams in
the bottom of the third inning and was followed by a walk by Matt Leskiw (Plains,
Pa./James). With runners on first and second base, Van Meter was thrown out at third
and Leskiw advanced safely to second on a double-steal attempt.
Richard Gonzalez (Caguas, Puerto Rico/PRBA) drove in Leskiw to cut the deficit to
4-1. Kwan Evans prolonged the rally by drawing a walk.
Seton Hall made a pitching change from starter Greg Miller to Chris McGlynn, who
induced a fly out to center field on his first pitch to Jared Bolden (Lynchburg/E.C.
Glass) to end the bottom of the third inning.
For the next 4 2/3 innings, Hirsch settled down and gave up just one hit for the
remainder of his outing. Following that single by A.J. Rusbarsky, Hirsch retired 13
consecutive batters.
The streak was broken when Greg Miller drew a four-pitch walk with two outs in
the eighth inning. Hirsch was relieved by Ian Thomas (Virginia Beach/Kellam), who
struck out Matt Smedberg to end the inning.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Rams mounted a miniature rally. Bolden doubled
to lead off and was followed by a walk by Chris Jackson (Midlothian/Manchester). R.J.
Schenk (Yorktown/Tabb) struck out and Justin Wright (Yorktown/Grafton) sacrificed
the runners to second and third base, but pinch-hitter Brad Bonney struck out to end
the threat.
Darryl Stringfield (Wakefield/Sussex Central) pitched the final inning of relief for the
Rams and struck out two batters. Of the 10 batters he faced this weekend, Stringfield
struck out eight of them and recorded a save.
The Rams went 1-3 to start the first home stand of the season over the weekend,
and dropped to 1-6 overall.
“You can’t worry about wins and losses at this point in the season, just about getting
better,” Keyes said. “Today, we were a lot better than yesterday.”
VCU will face Liberty Tuesday and East Carolina Wednesday at The Diamond. Both
games start at 3 p.m.
By the numbers
Seton Hall (3-4): 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 5 0
VCU (1-6): 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 0
Miller, McGlynn (3), Singer (8), Fernandez (9) and
Skopak; Hirsch, Thomas (8), Stringfield (9) and
Rodriguez, Furry (9). W: Miller (1-0). L: Hirsch (0-2). S:
Fernandez (1). HR: Pappas (1)