Final Stats

WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University baseball team dropped the series opener on Friday night at Seton Hall University, 11-2. With the loss, the Hoyas fall to 21-16 overall and 0-4 in BIG EAST play, while the Pirates improve to 19-16 on the season, and 3-4 in conference action.

Simon Mathews (West Haven, Conn./Hopkins School/Temple) started on the mound and went 4.1 innings, allowing six runs, three earned, on eight hits. He struck out five while walking three. Nick Morreale (Lake Elmo, Minn./St. Thomas Academy/IMG Academy) retired both batters he faced and Jeremiah Burke (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem Central/La Salle Institute) pitched 1.2 scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts.

Eric Garza (San Antonio, Texas/Ronald Reagan/TCU/San Jacinto) had two hits and an RBI to lead the offense, while Alex Bernauer (Sunnyvale, Calif./Fremont) also had two hits.

The Hoyas had their chances early, but left seven runners on base over the first three innings while taking a 2-1 lead. They opened the scoring in the top of the first, taking a 1-0 lead on a two-out rally. Kuzbel started things with a triple into the left-center field gap. He came around to score on a double down the right field line by Garza.

After the Pirates evened the score in the bottom of the first, Georgetown retook the lead in the top of the second without the benefit of a hit. Two walks and a catcher's interference loaded the bases with one out before Kuzbel lofted a sacrifice fly into left field to push Ryan Weisenberg (Parkland, Fla./San Ramon Valley) across the plate.

Seton Hall scored nine runs over the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to take a 10-2 lead, before completing the scoring with a run in the bottom of the eighth.

The two teams will resume their three-game series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. and Jack Cushing (Flower Mound, Texas/Marcus) will take the mound for the Blue & Gray. Live stats and a video stream will be available at www.GUHoyas.com and in-game updates can be found on the team's twitter account: @GtownBaseball.

Notes ââ'¬" Garza now has an RBI in eight-straight games, driving in 13 runs in that span … Kuzbel is riding a six-game hitting streak and has now reached base safely in 32-straight games … Kuzbel is now tied for the national lead with nine sacrifice flies this season.