Seton Hill baseball eliminated from NCAA Division II playoffs

CARY, N.C. — Seton Hill baseball coach Marc Marizzaldi said that his team was running on fumes after a second round loss to Angelo State on Tuesday at the Division II College World Series.

Sixteen hours later, its tank hit empty.

Worn down by a grueling regional and the humid North Carolina conditions, the Griffins went down quietly with a season-ending 5-1 loss to Wingate at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.

SHU mustered only six hits and never recovered from a four-run second inning by the Bulldogs to see its covid-interrupted season end two wins short of the championship round.

“Some of our better hitters that have put up some great power numbers all year, but it seemed like they were swinging telephone poles,” Marizzaldi said. “We had some really bad outs today, not very good contact. I hate to make excuses for them, but being able to sit back and watch the way they played, they seemed fatigued.”

The Griffins (39-8) came to Cary having hit 64 homers and didn’t go consecutive games all season without hitting at least one ball out of the park. They went homerless in three Division II World Series games.

“That was really big,” said Marizzaldi. “You have to be really good at what you’re good at. That has been the message to our team the entire year. We played pretty good defense here, I think we pitched okay. But we’ve been a really good long-ball team.

“It seems to be a momentum generator. Without those long balls, I think we lost our identity a little bit as an offense here in Cary.”

Even without a home run, SHU grabbed the early momentum against Wingate.

Owen Sabol, moved from leadoff to the sixth spot in a juggled batting order, got things started with a single leading off the second inning. After stealing second, he came around to score on a single by Tanner Froelich.

The early lead didn’t last, though.

The bottom of the second got off to an ominous start for the Griffins when second baseman Isaiah DiAndreth lost a pop fly in the sun that dropped in for a single by Jed Bryant. A one-out walk was followed by two singles and a triple, putting SHU into a 4-1 hole from which it wouldn’t escape.

“Four-run innings happen,” Griffins third baseman Jack Oberdorff said. “But we didn’t respond at the plate.

“Those situations are tough in the game. No matter what happened on the defensive side, you’ve got to come out and compete offensively and that didn’t happen. That’s about all there is to it.”

Wingate (36-13) scored its final run in the fifth. But the insurance wasn’t necessary the way pitcher David Nash was mowing down the Griffins.

The right-handed graduate student, who came into the game with a 5.68 ERA, kept SHU off balance by mixing speeds and pitches while striking out seven and walking just one.

The only time the Griffins threatened over the final seven innings came in the eighth when pinch hitter Jamie Wrabel and Canice Ejoh singled to put runners on first and second with one out. But the rally fizzled quickly.

Despite the loss, Marizzaldi was anything but disheartened, considering all his team had to go through just to get the second World Series in program history.

“Seven of the eight teams here in Cary are going to go home disappointed, and we’re one of them,” said the coach, whose team had to shut down for three weeks early in the year because of a covid-19 cluster. “We couldn’t get to the championship and compete for a national title, but it’s two losses. If they’re in the middle of the season, we’d probably look at them a little differently. We’re disappointed, but in no way are we any less proud of what our guys have accomplished.”