WEST ORANGE — The fourth-seeded Seton Hall Prep baseball team defeated No. 5 seed St. Joseph Regional (Montvale) 4-3 in the quarterfinal round of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Non-Public “A” North tournament at Porcello Field in West Orange to improve to 23-5 on the season.
The Pirates opened the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the third inning. Junior Aiden Nugent singled to left field to open the inning. He advanced to second when freshman Noah Vargas’s sacrifice bunt was thrown away to put runners on first and second.
Nugent scored when senior Jaxson Davis’s sac bunt was thrown away to put runners on second and third.
Senior Xavier McKnight had an RBI squeeze bunt to drive in Vargas to make the score 2-0. Later in the inning, sophomore Matthew Filiaci doubled into the left-field corner and scored when senior Jordan Burwell doubled to right-center field.
St. Joe’s came back to tie the score with three runs in the top of the fourth inning.
The score remained tied until the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out, Burwell walked and stole second, and senior Devin Aiken was intentionally walked to put runners on first and second. Junior Jack Webber lined a single to right field, driving in Burwell with the winning run. Senior JJ Drennan (6-1) pitched a complete game, allowing three runs, two earned, on seven hits, while striking out four and allowing no walks and hitting one batter.
Following the game, Webber said, “(I’m) just super happy that we could pull out the win today. We have been working hard all year and today it paid off. We are not done yet and we have to keep working hard and pushing ourselves. We will continue to fight as a team and hopefully piece together some more wins.” The Pirates were scheduled to face No. 1 seed Delbarton in the semifinal round at Brian Fleury Field on the Delbarton campus on Tuesday, June 2, after press time.
About the Author
