The Seton Hall team looks to continue their winning ways this year, and three of their players look to continue their success and bring the lessons they learned while playing in the most prestigious collegiate summer league back to the Pirates.

Brian Gilbert, Jose Lopez, and Ryan Sullivan spent some of last summer playing for the , which is considered by baseball analysts as the best collegiate summer league in the country. A plethora of Major Leaguers played on the Cape while in college, including Tim Lincecum, and Seton Hall alum Craig Biggio. Gilbert played the whole summer on the Cape, while Lopez and Sullivan were called up from other leagues mid-season. Both Gilbert and Lopez played for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, while Sullivan played for the Wareham Gatemen. The two teams were the most successful teams in the league, with the Red Sox winning the Cape League Championship over the Gatemen. Both Gilbert and Sullivan focused on the fact that, no matter who won the title, a Cape League Championship was coming to Seton Hall.

“Just knowing that no matter what happened that Seton Hall was bringing home a Cape championship on either side, that was cool for the school and cool all together,” Sullivan said.

Gilbert finished the season with a 2-1 record, one and a 6.57 ERA. In one outing in the playoffs he pitched two scoreless with two and a walk. Sullivan went .237 on the season with 11 runs and four RBIs. In the playoffs he batted .217 with three runs. Lopez went 1-1 in three outings with three strikeouts and a 10.80 ERA.

All three thought that their time on the Cape helped them gained confidence going into this season and moving forward. Gilbert, especially, thought that the summer helped his confidence. It also helped to redefine his role in the pitching staff this season. After starting for most of last season. He came out of the bullpen for the Red Sox, and has been the closer for the Pirates so far this season. After a rough season for the Pirates last year, and with the uncertainty of being a temporary player for the Red Sox in the beginning of the season, Gilbert built a lot of confidence through his peformance against the best players in the nation.

“The previous school ball season I didn’t really pitch that well, so going up there I was playing with the best of the best, I didn’t know how I was gonna fair out,” Gilbert said. “Then I got up there and I had a really good outing and another really good outing and I saw that I could pitch against these guys, I can compete with the best of the best. As the season went on I still continued having success. Granted I had a fews outings there where I did struggle but those outings made me stronger and allowed me to pitch smarter, become a better baseball player. As the season went on, building off of even the better players on my team, the better , sitting down along with them saying how they had success and what they did, what they were thinking during the game, and just the experience with those guys made me a better player, better person.”

Seton Hall will send Gilbert and Lopez back up there this upcoming summer, along with Sal Annunziata and Zack Granite.

Brandon Biskobing can be reached on Twitter @WSOU_Bisko