As the season continues so too does success and defeat for the Seton Hall Pirates Softball Team (12-16, 0-3). After winning the Seton Hall Pirate Classic defeating Sacred Heart, 3-1, in the championship game the Pirates played host to the Pittsburgh Panthers (22-6, 3-0).
After a no-hit by Pittsburgh's Cory Berliner, the score was 9-0 in five innings in its Big East opener. The Pirates continued that trend being shutout in game-two, 6-0. Freshman Maria DeLuca and Senior Nalin Bennett were the only Pirates Players to get hits.
In the 3rd game the Panthers completed the three-game sweep with a 10-1 victory on Sunday afternoon. The Pirates were only able to score one run in the three game series, they were outscored 25-1 in the three games.
In the game the Panthers were able to put the Pirates away for good with homers from Holly Stevens and Niki Cognigni, scoring an additional three more runs by the end of the fourth inning. Sophomore Pitcher Hannah Hill fell to 5-10 on the year.
The three game sweep leaves Head Coach Ray Vander May one win shy of 400 career victories. Now in his 15th season at Seton Hall University Coach Vander May has done great work both on and off the field. Coach Vander May will get the opportunity to reach the milestone in the upcoming week.
As Big East play continues the Pirates look to rebound from a three game skid playing a double header Thursday, March 31st against Saint Peter's (0-12) with first pitch at 3:30 PM. That series is followed by three games at Louisville (20-10) before playing host to Saint Johns in a double header on April 6th.
Saint Peter's who is looking for their first win of the year gives the Pirates a realistic shot to turn their three game losing streak around, before traveling to Louisville. Louisville who has had a string of early success so far posting 20 wins already will first travel to DePaul for a two game series before coming home to face the Pirates.
For the Red Storm, they will play host to USF this week before also traveling to DePaul where they will then come to Seton Hall University for the double header.
The Pirates will continue to try and put a string of wins together as they did earlier this month as they did in the Seton Hall Pirate Classic and look for Coach Vander May to reach the 400 career victory mark.
Chris Paizis can be reached at Christos.paizis@student.shu.edu
