College-District

Seton Hill baseball knocks off nation’s No. 1 team

Paul Schofield
Monday, March 4, 2024 7:10 p.m. | Monday, March 4, 2024 7:10 p.m.

Paul Schofield | TribLive

Christian Zilli (Hempfield) pitched a scoreless 11th inning to earn his third save of the season, and Noah Sweeney (Greensburg Salem) drove in Aidan Shephard (Norwin) for the winning run on a double play grounder as Seton Hill handed No. 1 Tampa its first loss of the season, 6-5, on Monday.

Tampa was averaging more than 12 runs per game.

THEY'VE DONE IT! #11 @SHGriffBaseball has taken down the unbeaten Tampa Spartans in 11 innings 6-5! There's a reason we ranked Seton Hill #4 in the preseason and still at #11, and they showed why today!

Max Mandler went 3-5 with a HR and 2 RBI#D2Baseball pic.twitter.com/RXUYLTt2PX

— D2 Baseball (@divIIbaseball) March 4, 2024

The Griffins (7-3) got a home run and double from Max Mandler (Upper St. Clair), who went 3 for 5 with two RBIs. This was their third consecutive one-run victory during the spring break trip to central Florida.

Seton Hill took a 5-3 lead into the home half of the ninth after Mandler’s solo shot.

Sweeney, Shephard, Braden Durham and Owen Sabol (Norwin) had doubles, and Jakob Haynes (Penn-Trafford) had two hits and an RBI. Evan Rossi pitched a scoreless 10th to earn the win.

Tampa (17-1) saw its 17-game winning streak to begin the season end.