The Seton Hall softball team had its losing streak extended to eight games on Saturday afternoon, as the team dropped both games of a doubleheader with the Villanova Wildcats, 15-7 and then 9-2, in Villanova, Pa. The Pirates are now 18-31 overall and 4-13 in conference play.
The first game started out positive for the away side, as Seton Hall took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. The Wildcats then answered back with a three-run home run in the bottom of the first, after a late call-reversal extended the inning, allowing Villanova the opportunity to take the 3-2 lead.
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Photo via SHU Athletics[/caption]
At the end of the second, the Wildcats extend their lead to 5-2, as right-fielder Natalia Segovia and third baseman Julia DaCosta scored on a pair of sacrifice-flies.
Seton Hall were held at two runs until the top of the third, when history was generated by senior infielder Alexis Walkden. With no one on-base, Walkden hit a home run, which was the 50th of her career. Afterward, freshman Baylee Allender hit an RBI-single, which cut the lead to 5-4, and the Pirates were not done.
Emily Supercynski gave the Pirates the lead back in the same inning with a two-run double, making the score 6-5 in the mid-third.
That proved to be all the scoring the Pirates had, though, and the Wildcats were far from done. Villanova retook the lead in the bottom half of the third with four runs, and then pulled away in the fourth with three more runs that made the game 12-7, following a solo home run by Pirates pitcher Chrisa Head in the top of the fourth.
The game finished 15-7 in five and two-thirds innings, with Villanova activating the mercy-rule with a three-run homerun from junior infielder Lauren Hanna. Reganne Camp took the loss for the game, pitching two innings, in which she allowed nine runs, with four earned, as the Pirates had four errors on the game.
The second game of the doubleheader was a similar story, as the Wildcats continued at an unmatchable pace offensively. The Wildcats scored in the first inning and led through the second and third inning, but the Pirates were able to tie the game in the fourth.
Allender, who was at the center of the Pirate’s four-run third inning in the earlier game, hit the first homerun of her career, a two-run hit over the centerfield wall, to tie the game. After the top of the fourth, though, the Wildcats broke out scoring, just as they had done in the first game, with three runs to answer Seton Hall’s best offensive inning.
The Wildcats scored four more runs in the sixth which sealed the game, a 9-2 win in favor of the home side. Mo Sobel took the defeat on the mound, as she pitched 5.1 innings and allowed nine earned runs.
Seton Hall will end its three game road series at Villanova on Sunday, April 29. With opening pitch set for 12 p.m., the Pirates will look to take the last game of the series and end their eight-game losing skid.
Ryan Beltran can be reached at ryan.beltran@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @RyanB591011.
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