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Seton Hall Athletics[/caption]
Seton Hall softball dropped an extra-inning affair to the Hofstra Pride on Tuesday, losing 6-3 in 13 innings.
The Pirates looked as if they had the game in the bag heading into the top of the seventh, but blew a two-run lead.
The Pirates offense got rolling in the bottom of the second inning. Senior Sara Haefelli led off the inning with a leadoff double into the left-centerfield gap off Hofstra starting pitcher Morgan Lashley. The next batter to step to the plate, Senior Danielle DeStaso hit a towering, two-run homerun over the left-centerfield fence that found the trees beyond the fence. It was DeStaso’s 11th homerun of the season and gave the Pirates the early 2-0 lead.
The Pirates added a run to their lead in the bottom of the third. Junior Yasmine Harrell led off the inning with a single to leftfield. Senior Whitney Jones laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved Harrell over to second before advancing to third on a wild pitch by Taylor Pirone, who came on in relief with two outs in the bottom of the second. Freshman Alexis Walkden followed the sacrifice bunt by ripping an RBI single through the left side of the infield.
From that point on Pirone held the Pirates in check finishing with 10.1 IP and allowing her only run in the bottom of the third.
Senior Casey Moses started for the Pirates and had no trouble with the Hofstra lineup, holding the Pride scoreless through five innings.
Moses allowed her first run in the top of the sixth. With nobody on and one out in the inning Moses gave up a solo homerun off the bat of Caryn Bailey which cut the Pirates lead to 3-1.
Moses was pulled in the top of the seventh inning after allowing a leadoff-single to Erin Trippi. She finished with 6.0 IP allowing six hits and only one run.
Sophomore Lauren Fischer came on in the seventh with nobody out and a runner on first. She managed to get Brielle Pietrafesa to ground into a fielder’s choice before giving up a game tying two-run homerun over the leftfield fence by Megan Patierno.
Controversy struck in the top of the 11th. With one out and a runner on first and 1 out Pietrafesa popped up to Harrell at second. Harrell then wheeled and fired over to first to get Trippi out at first for what looked like an inning ending double play. The Pride manager, Larissa Anderson, argued that Jones was off the bag at first and, after a conference between the umpires, Jones was ruled off the bag by the home plate umpire.
The Pride scored the go-ahead in the top of the 13th when Patierno ripped a two-out RBI single to leftfield, scoring Kim Smith from third. Patierno advanced to third and Lacey Clark scored on the ensuing fielding error by Alex Rabbetts. The Pride would add one more in the inning to go up 6-3.
The Pirates final regular season series starts Saturday, May 2, at Mike Sheppard, Sr. Field. The first pitch of the three game series is slated for 12 p.m.
Kevin Huebler can be reached at kevin.huebler@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @Hueblerkevin
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