Seton Hill baseball knocks off nation’s No. 1 team
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Monday, March 4, 2024 | 7:10 PM
Christian Zilli (Hempfield) pitched a scoreless 11th inning to earn his third save of the season and Noah Sweeney (Greensburg Salem) drove in the winning run on a ground out as No. 11 Seton Hill handed No. 1 Tampa its first loss of the season, 6-5, Monday in a battle of top-ranked NCAA Division II teams.
Tampa was averaging more than 12 runs per game.
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.
Sweeney, Braden Durham, Owen Sabol (Norwin) and Aiden Shephard (Norwin) had doubles, while 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.
Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.
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