The Seton Hall softball team’s slow start resulted in a 12-3 mercy-rule loss to DePaul on Sunday afternoon at Mike Sheppard Sr. Field. The loss gives the Blue Demons the series sweep, as the Pirates fall to 0-3 in conference play.
After a scoreless first inning for both sides, Angela Scalzitti of the Blue Demons gave the visitors an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second. The DePaul centerfielder reached first on an error and crossed the plate shortly after, as the result of a double from teammate Megan Leyva.
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The second inning was merely a sign of runs to come, as the Blue Demons followed up with an eight-run third inning off of eight hits. The offense started with a solo home run from Jessica Cothern, which was followed by seven straight hits: including three singles, a double, two triples and a home run. The inning came full circle when Cothern knocked in the eighth and final run of the inning on a sacrifice-fly to right field.
The Pirate’s starting pitcher Reganne Camp was pulled halfway through the offensive breakout for DePaul, with the sophomore finishing with five hits and four earned runs through two innings. Madison Strunk came on in relief and gave up four earned runs of her own in one inning pitched.
After struggling to get a hit through three innings, the Pirates followed up with some fight by scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. An error by DePaul off of a Darby Pandolfo hit resulted in the first runs of the day for the Pirates, as Arteaga and Walkden crossed the plate. Shortly after, it was Peck who had the first RBI, with a single to left field that made the score 9-3 in favor of DePaul.
The Blue Demons refused to go away; however, as they responded with three runs of their own in the top of the fifth inning, sparked by a wild pitch from Mo Sobel and a two-run single.
Seton Hall put up another run in the bottom of the fifth, but came one run short from halting the mercy rule, as the Pirates fell 12-4 in five innings.
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“I liked the fight that we had late in the game,” head coach Paige Smith said. “I thought that if we came out from the beginning [like that], we would have had a much different result."
Seton Hall will remain home for its next game on Tuesday, March 27, when they face off against Fairfield at 3:30 p.m.
Keith Egan can be reached at keith.egan@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @Keith_egan10.
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