GAME ONE BOX SCORE (.html)
GAME ONE BOX SCORE (.pdf)
GAME TWO BOX SCORE (.html)
GAME TWO BOX SCORE (.pdf)
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. The Seton Hall softball team fell to Pittsburgh twice on Saturday. The Pirates (20-24-1, 7-11) trailed by seven runs in game two, but rallied to bring the tying run to the plate in the seventh inning before coming up short, 7-5. Seton Hall dropped the opener, 8-3.
The Panthers (20-21, 6-12) put up six runs in the first two innings, and extended the lead to 7-0 after a solo home run by Ciera Damon in the fifth.
The Pirates earned a run back in the sixth inning with a Kealan Waldron (Oak Park, Ill.) RBI double to score Nalin Bennett (East Syracuse, N.Y.).
Things got even more interesting in the bottom of the seventh after Leah Menichetti (Jessup, Pa.) started the inning with a base-hit and Shannon Pease (Binghamton, N.Y.) drew a walk. Bennett singled to load the bases, but Michelle Reed (Wrightstown, N.J.) hit a grounder to short that could not score Menichetti.
With Seton Hall down to its final out, Waldron ripped a single to left to make it, 7-3. Waldron moved to second after the leftfielder bobbled the ball to put two runners in scoring position. Sophomore Brittany Schillizzi (Paramus, N.J.) followed up with another base-hit to left, that the leftfielder misplayed again, allowing both runs to cross the plate and pull the Pirates within two. However, Alyssa O’Connell got Kristen Kaelin (Parlin, N.J.) to fly out to rightfield to end the game.
Senior Amanda Winn (Manahawkin, N.J.) and Bennett were each 2-for-3 in the game. Senior pitcher Kim Schweitzer (Syracuse, N.Y.) (10-10) took the loss.
Seton Hall looked like they were on their way to routing Pittsburgh in game one after scoring three runs in the first three innings of starting pitcher, Cory Berliner. Kaelin and Winn delivered RBI base-hits in the first, and Winn came up with another run scoring hit in the third.
The Panthers cut the deficit to 3-2 after a two-run homer by Yvette Bravo in the fourth inning, and tied the score with another long ball by Reba Tutt in the fifth. Junior Ashley Forsyth (Freehold, N.J.) surrendered a three-run blast to Amanda Heitmeier in the sixth to give Pittsburgh a 6-3 lead.
Pittsburgh tacked on two more runs in the seventh, and it was O’Connell, who came in relief in and quieted the Pirates’ bats from the third inning on.
Forsyth (7-10) earned the decision after pitching three innings of relief work. Kaelin and Winn both went 2-for-2 from the dish.
Seton Hall returns to the field on Sunday, April 19, against USF at
Ivy Hill Park. The double-header will begin at 11:00 a.m
