Seton Hall Prep Baseball Falls Short in State Final

The Seton Hall Prep baseball team lost to Gloucester Catholic 2-0 Sunday afternoon in the Non-Public A championship. The Pirates, who were looking for their first state title since 2007, were unable to come up with the clutch hit as the Rams captured their fourth straight state title.

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

 R 

 H 

 E 

Gloucester Catholic (29-5)

0

0

1

0

1

0

0

2

6

0

Seton Hall Prep (30-3)

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

4

3

IN SHORT

The Pirates had their chances to take an early lead, putting a runner on in each of the first three innings but a called third strike, an easy groundout, and a pickoff ended each of the threats.

The Rams scratched out a run in the top of third when Anthony Harrold delivered a two-out RBI single to score Fran Kinsey. They added an unearned run in the fifth, taking advantage of a Seton Hall Prep error when Phil Dickinson came home on an RBI ground out by Sean Breen.

Seton Hall had their best chance in the fifth inning when Christian Orsini and Kevin Mahala lead off with back-to-back singles. Collin Nordstrom sacrificed to put runners on second and third but Lukas DeRenzi struck out and Nick Mascelli grounded out on a very close play at first.

In trying to explain the Pirates lack of hitting head coach Mike Sheppard Jr. credited Gloucester Catholic starting pitcher Mike Shawaryn. "He was on today throwing strikes and keeping us off balance" said Sheppard.

For the Pirates Kevin Mahala had two hits with a double and Mike Muha and Mark Venice each had a single. Starting pitcher Mike Sgaramella went six innings, allowing six hits striking out six.

COACHES TAKE

"Mike's [starting pitcher Mike Sgaramella] breaking ball was on and he kept us in the game. We just couldn't capitalize" Sheppard said.

"I told the team that we had nothing to hang our heads about" Sheppard said. "A 30-win season doesn't happen very often in high school."