The Seton Hall baseball team was back in action on Friday in Miami, Florida to take on the Florida International Panthers. The game was the first of a four game series against FIU. The pitching match up was RHP Shane McCarthy (0-1) for the Pirates against RHP Andres Nunez (0-1) for the Panthers. FIU would ultimately take the first game of this series by a score of 8-3.

The Pirates went down in order in the top of the first. The Panthers would strike first in the bottom half of the inning when JC Escarra singled home Irving Lopez to give FIU a 1-0 lead. The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the third. Austin Rodriguez singled the middle to score Jack Schaaf and give FIU a 2-0 lead.

The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the fifth when the Panthers broke the game open. Kenny Meimerstorf got things started with an RBI single to give FIU a 3-0 lead. Zach Files scored on a fielders choice and Kolby Follis hit an RBI single to give the Panthers a 5-0 lead. A Jack Schaaf RBI single and a Zack Soria RBI double opened the lead up to 7-0. Schaaf scored on an error to give the FIU an 8-0 lead.

The Pirates would finally get on the board in the top of the seventh. Mikael-Ali Mogues would triple to right field and score Ryan Ramiz to make it 8-1. Mogues would score on a fielders choice to make the score 8-2. In the bottom of the eighth Derek Jenkins would score on an error to cut the lead to 8-3. However, this is as close as the Pirates would get as they would fall to FIU by a score of 8-3.

Andres Nunez picked up the win for the Panthers as he improved to 1-1 on the season. He threw 8 solid innings allowing just 2 earned runs on 8 hits while striking out 6. Frank Chacon pitched the ninth for the Panthers allowing no runs and striking out 1.

Shane McCarthy took the loss for the Pirates and fell to 0-2 on the season. McCarthy threw 4 innings while allowing 5 runs on 11 hits. He struck out 5 batters and walked one. Sam Burum threw 2/3 of an inning allowing 2 earned runs on 3 hits. Tim Edwards threw 2 1/3 innings while allowing 0 runs. Ryan Testani pitched 1 clean inning while allowing no hits.

The Panthers were led by center fielder Jack Schaaf who had 2 hits, an RBI, and scored 2 runs. Shortstop Irving Lopez also had 2 hits and scored 2 runs. Zack Soria, Austin Rodriguez, and Kolby Follis each had 2 hits for FIU.

The Pirates were led by Ryan Ramiz who had 3 hits and scored a run. Mikael-Ali Mogues and Sebastiano Santorelli each had an RBI for Seton Hall. Shortstop Joe Poduslenko had 2 hits for the Pirates.

With the win the Panthers improve to 2-4 on the season. With the loss the Pirates fall to 2-3 on the season. The Pirates are back in action tomorrow against FIU at 6:30 p.m. in Miami. The pitching match up is RHP Zach Schellenger (0-1, 6.75 ERA) for the Pirates against RHP Chris Mourelle (0-1, 11.81 ERA) for FIU. We will have full coverage of the FIU game tonight. Until then, Hazard Zet Forward.