May 17, 2008

Box Score |  Georgetown Baseball Senior Day 

Washington, D.C. - The Georgetown University baseball team swept Seton Hall on Saturday afternoon, winning their first BIG EAST series at home with 8-2 and 9-5 victories. Junior Jimmy Saris sparkled in the first game and was backed by homeruns from freshman Sean Lamont and senior Matt Iannetta while Michael Gaggioli was outstanding in the second contest and junior Kelly Muir went 4-for-4 with three runs batted in.

In the shortened first game, Saris pitched all seven innings, allowing two runs on eight hits while striking out three Pirate batters. It was his team-leading sixth win of the season as the Hoyas evened the series with an 8-2 win.

Georgetown trailed 1-0 until the fourth inning when sophomore Dan Capeless and Iannetta reached base with two outs. Lamont followed by crushing his 12th homer of the season over the right-field wall for a 3-1 Hoya lead.

During the fifth inning, the Blue and Gray tacked on five more runs to blow the game wide open. Sophomore Tom Elliot knocked a RBI double to center that scored freshman Dan Godefroi to make the score 4-2. With two outs, sophomore Chip Malt doubled to right field for a 5-2 advantage. Capeless was able to draw a walk that put runners on first and second for Iannetta, who put the exclamation point on the scoring with his second homer of the season.

In game two, Gaggioli threw seven innings of one-hit ball and struck out five batters to give him 202 strikeouts for his career. The school record for strikeouts in a career is 213. The lefthander baffled Pirate hitters throughout the game inducing grounders and lazy fly balls en route to the win. Fittingly, seniors Grady McConnell and Daniel Kennedy were able to close the game out and secure the victory.

The Hoyas jumped out to a 9-0 lead before the Pirates scored five late runs to create the final score. Georgetown loaded the bases during the first after two walks and a single and sophomore Tommy Lee scored the first run on a wild pitch. During the same at-bat, Iannetta hit into a double play that allowed Malt to score with the team's second run.

A Lee RBI single in the second scored Muir, who had reached base after one of his four hits in the game. A Seton Hall pitching change in the third did more harm than good for the Pirates as four straight Hoyas reached base and Lamont delivered a RBI single to make the lead, 4-0. Another pitching change would follow and a two-run single by Muir pushed the advantage to six runs. After a pop-up by senior Matt Maranges, Elliott made the score 7-0 with a basehit to right.

Lamont and Muir would come up with run-scoring singles in the seventh for a 9-0 GU lead. Those plays proved vital as Seton Hall cut the lead to 9-5 in the following frames.