Softball Edges Howard, 5-4

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. The Seton Hall softball team rallied from two-runs down and then had to hold on to beat Howard, 5-4, at the Maryland Invitational. The Pirates (8-9) will take on Mt. St. Mary’s at 5:00 p.m. later this evening to wrap up day two of the tournament.

Trina Kindred put the Bison (5-15) on top with a two-run blast off of junior Danielle Zanzalari (Carteret, N.J.) in the bottom of the second inning.

Emily Johnson had retired the first eight batters of the game before that hit before sophomore Nalin Bennett (East Syracuse, N.Y.) started a two-out rally with an infield single. Before a ball was thrown to the next batter, Bennett stole second while Johnson held the ball out of the circle, and Michelle Reed (Wrightstown, N.J.) sent a single to center to cut the deficit in half.

Reed moved all the way to third base after the centerfielder misplayed the ball, and later scored on a wild pitch to tie the score, 2-2.

Howard quickly regained the lead with a two-out solo homer from Nicole Saez in the bottom half of the inning, but the Pirates answered right back in the sixth.

Senior Kealan Waldron (Oak Park, Ill.) caught a break when she hit a come-backer to the circle, and the ball took a bad hop off the pitching rubber to start things off. A sacrifice bunt pushed the runner into scoring position for Shannon Pease (Binghamton, N.Y.). Pease popped up to shallow center, but the centerfielder and second baseman failed to communicate who had the play and the ball fell between them. Waldron scored easily and SHU knotted the score again.

After Pease stole her fourth base of the season, Brittany Schillizzi (Paramus, N.J.) doubled over the centefielder’s head to give the Pirates their first lead of the day, 4-3.

A Waldron RBI single gave the Hall an insurance run in the fifth, but the Bison refused to go quietly.

In the bottom of the seventh, Morgan Plowden hit a ball hard that went off of pitcher Kim Schweitzer’s (Syracuse, N.Y.) glove. The ball ricocheted to third, and Waldron tried to make a play, but overthrew to first and Plowden went to second. Ciera Gordon found a gap in right-centerfield to pull Howard within one, and put the tying run in scoring position.

Schweitzer retired the next two batters via a fly out and a groundout, but issued a walk to Johnson on four pitches bringing up Saez. Saez lifted a lazy fly ball to right and Reed made the play to end the game.

Waldron and Schillizzi each went 2-for-3 on the day, and Reed was 2-for-4. Reed was caught stealing for the first time this season in the seventh inning. Schweitzer earns the win and is now 5-4. She threw 5.1 innings in relief and allowed one earned run on five hits.

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