Hall Opens Road Swing at St. John's
4/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 16, 2014
SHU Softball Weekly Release
| Game 1 Live Video | Game 2 Live Video
The Seton Hall University softball team will play back-to-back BIG EAST road series starting this week with three games against the St. John's Red Storm. The Pirates enter the week in third place in the conference standings and are one game in front of fifth place St. John's. The series gets started with a doubleheader on Thursday, April 17, at 12 p.m., and the series finale will follow on Saturday afternoon at 12 p.m.
Seton Hall bounced back from a loss in game one to grab two straight from Creighton University and win the series last weekend in South Orange. Junior Danielle DeStaso was dominant on the mound, throwing back-to-back complete games to lead the Pirates to a pair of wins. DeStaso drove in three runs in a 5-3 victory in game two and allowed just two hits with five strikeouts and no walks in a complete-game shutout in the series finale. Sophomore Jackie DiPietro recorded SHU's only hit in game three, and came home to score on a Yasmin Harrell grounder to first in the bottom of the third inning for the only run of the game.
WHO TO WATCH
SETON HALL: Junior Danielle DeStaso is shining on the mound and at the plate for the Pirates. She threw 16.2 innings last week to pick up a pair of wins with 15 strikeouts while limiting the opposition to just a .197 average. Offensively she hit a team-best .364 over the past four games with a home run, a double, four RBI's and four runs scored. Sophomore Yasmin Harrell boasted a .400 on-base percentage in the leadoff spot, hitting .333 with two runs scored and two stolen bases during last week's action. The Pirates will also rely on senior Jen Metzger, who leads the team with a 4.89 ERA and has four wins on the year.
ST. JOHN'S: Tori Free has started 22 of the Red Storm's 39 games on the mound and has a 7-13 record with a 3.98 earned run average while averaging better than a strikeout per inning. St. John's has four players batting north of .300, but Jackie Reed and Erin Burner lead the way. Reed is batting a team-best .393 but Burner has 22 extra-base hits including 11 home runs.
SCOUTING ST. JOHN'S
The Red Storm are one of the best offensive teams in the conference, ranking second in the BIG EAST with a .286 team batting average. St. John's has seen consistency in its lineup with four players starting all 39 games. Erin Burner leads the league in base hits (48) and runs scored (32) and ranks second in home runs (11) and runs batted in (31). St. John's is in the bottom half of the league in pitching with a team ERA of 4.34, which ranks sixth in the conference.
FUTURE SCHEDULE
Seton Hall will be back on the road for another BIG EAST series, this time making up three games at Villanova on Monday-Tuesday, April 21-22. The series starts with a doubleheader on Monday at 1 p.m., and the finale on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
COMPLETE PLAYER
Junior Danielle DeStaso did a little bit of everything in leading the Pirates to a 2-1 series victory over Creighton on April 12-13. She threw back-to-back complete games, limiting the Bluejays to just two base hits in a 1-0 shutout in the series finale, striking out 14 batters over the weekend. At the plate she went 1-for-3 with a double and three RBI's to pace the offense to a 5-3 victory in game two.
SMITH PASSES 200-CAREER VICTORIES
With Seton Hall's 5-3 win over Creighton on April 12, head coach Paige Smith reached the 200-career victories plateau. Smith has won 32 games at Seton Hall which is added to her 169 wins over five seasons as the head coach at Adelphi. In nearly seven seasons as a collegiate head coach Smith boasts a career record of 201-160-1, for a winning percentage of .557.
STRIKEOUT LEADER
Fanning nine batters in a complete-game winning effort against Creighton on April 12, junior Danielle DeStaso ascended another position on the Seton Hall all-time strikeout list, moving up to fourth place in program history. She has 330 strikeouts over her two-plus seasons at Seton Hall but will have her work cut out for her if she is going to move up to third place all-time as she currently sits 151 strikeouts behind Christina Shanko's (2000-03) four-year tally of 481.
HOME COOKING
Seton Hall has played just two BIG EAST series at Mike Sheppard, Sr. Field this season but the Pirates have proven to be a tough out on their home field. Seton Hall is 5-1 against conference foes in South Orange, winning series against Providence and Creighton.
BLANK SLATE
Through just the first nine games of the conference season Seton Hall has already posted a pair of BIG EAST shutout victories, the most for the Hall since the 2010 season. The Pirates' had just one shutout in conference last season, a 10-0 victory at St. John's on March 28. The last time the Hall posted three shutout wins against BIG EAST foes came during that 2010 campaign.
