Softball Edged Twice at Providence, 5-3 & 5-4

Jenna Best homered once again on Sunday and is hitting .469 with 26 RBI in her last 16 games.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Seton Hall softball team suffered a blow to its BIG EAST Tournament chances when the Pirates lost twice to Providence on Sunday, 5-3 & 5-4, at Raymond Field. SHU falls to 28-24 and 6-12 in the BIG EAST with four league games remaining. The top eight teams out of 12 qualify for the league championship, May 11-14 at South Bend, Ind. PC improves to 26-14-1 and 9-7 in the conference.

In both games, Seton Hall held leads early but could not hang on. In game one, the Pirates led 3-0 but saw Providence score twice in the third, twice in the fourth and once in the fifth while SHU left six runners on base in the final four innings and did not score. In game two, the Pirates took a 4-3 lead with three runs in the top of the fifth, only to watch PC score twice in the bottom of the inning to hang on for the one-run win.

Pirate sophomore outfielder Jenna Best (Medford, N.J.) continued her torrid streak, going 3-for-3 with a double and home run in game one. She was 1-for-4 in game two and in the last two weeks, a span of 16 games, is hitting .469 with seven homers and 26 runs batted in.

In game one, the Pirates took a 2-0 lead in the second on RBI singles by freshman third baseman Kealan Waldron (Oak Park, Ill.) and senior outfielder Akoua Lonergan (Allentown, Pa.). Best homered to lead off the third, but that was all the offense SHU could must in the game. Sophomore right-hander Maura Lund (Oak Park, Ill.) took the loss, allowing four runs (two earned), five hits and three walks in 3.2 innings to fall to 3-1.

In game two, SHU took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a solo homer by senior shortstop Katie Pierce (Pittsfield, Mass.). Providence scored three in the bottom of the inning off of freshman righy Kim Schweitzer (Syracuse, N.Y.), to take a 3-1 lead. In the fifth, SHU scored three, helped by a two-run homer by Lonergan and a run scoring on an error.

Once again, PC responded in the bottom half of the inning, as Michelle Willette tripled with one out and came home on a sacrifice fly, and Rachel Bartholomew homered to center field with what turned out to be the game-winning run.

Lonergan and Pierce both went 2-for-4 in game two. Lonergan hit her sixth homer and had two RBI and one run scored. Pierce hit her eighth and scored twice. She finished with three hits on the day and has tied McKenzie Richards (2004) for the single-season school record for hits with 61.

The Pirates finish their BIG EAST season with home doubleheaders against second-place Notre Dame on May 6 and DePaul, a team that was ranked nationally earlier in the season, on May 7. After a doubleheader at St. Peter’s on Apr. 25 at 3:30 p.m., the Pirates are off until May 6.

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