Following a narrow win on Friday against St. John’s, the Seton Hall softball team dropped both games in a doubleheader on Saturday in Queens, N.Y. The Red Storm, now 15-21 and 6-3 in the Big East, overcame the Pirates, who drop to 18-25 and 4-8 in the conference.
The first game of Saturday’s doubleheader looked nothing like the hard-fought victory that Seton Hall earned on Friday. The Pirates were defeated in five innings by a lopsided margin, 9-0. From the first pitch, St. John’s looked like a team who had something to prove, as in the first inning, the Red Storm loaded the bases to bring in two runs on fielder’s choices.
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Photo via SHU Athletics[/caption]
Seton Hall struggled to gain any traction on offense, while the Red Storm continued to build upon their lead. Racking up another three runs in the third and two in the fourth, the game increasingly slipped away from the Hall, as the Pirates found themselves in a 7-0 hole. St. John’s utilized their two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth to activate the run-rule and end the contest.
The Pirates, as the score suggested, struggled at bat. They were out-hit 10-1 and committed the game’s only error. Sara Foster recorded Seton Hall’s lone hit, going 1-for-1 with a walk.
The back end of Saturday’s doubleheader was decided by a narrower margin; however, the end-result was the same: another Red Storm victory. Unlike their earlier contest, the Pirates were able to secure the early lead. Alexis Walkden sent an RBI-single up the middle in the first, to give Seton Hall a 1-0 start. This time able to generate offense, the Hall racked up three more runs in the top of the third, in large part due to Payton Beaver’s double while down in the count.
St. John’s used the fourth inning as its turning point, with a solo home run and two run-scoring singles that allowed the home side to pull the contest back to even. Seton Hall’s Baylee Allender answered back with an RBI-single in the fifth, but, the Red Storm stayed the course.
Down by one, the Red Storm managed a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth, giving them their first lead of the game; a lead they would protect for the remainder of the game.
Seton Hall will end its road stretch on Thursday, April 19, with a non-conference encounter in Bethlehem, Pa. There the Pirates will take on Lehigh, with the game scheduled to start at 4 p.m.
Anthony Talarico can be reached at anthony.talarico@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @ant_tal.
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