Pirates Open Up 2021 Season at Gamecock Invitational

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – The Seton Hall softball team will officially open up its 2021 season when travel down to Columbia, S.C. to take part in the Gamecock Invitational hosted by South Carolina from Feb. 26-Feb. 28.

In total, the Pirates will play five games against three teams: Longwood, #16 Duke and host-school #18 South Carolina. The Hall will open up with Longwood on Friday morning before taking on South Carolina in the afternoon. On Saturday, the Pirates will take on the likes of Duke in the morning before playing South Carolina later in the day. Seton Hall will wrap up the tournament on Sunday morning against Duke.

LAST TIME OUT
The Pirates are coming off a shortened season in which they finished 10-14. The Pirates maintain much of their offensive production from a year ago with 98.7 percent of their at-bats retuning and all of their run production. Among those returning are Baylee Allender (Rosharon, Texas) who led the team with nine home runs and Janae Barracato (Hempstead, N.Y.) who racked up a team-leading 12 doubles which was tied for fifth in the nation.

SCOUTING

Longwood (1-3)

The Lancers are coming off their first action of the season last weekend in the Georgia Classic where they upset host Georgia 3-2.
Longwood finished as the Big South Champion two seasons ago for the fifth time in seven season earning an NCAA Tournament bid.
These two programs met last season, also in the Pirates' season opener, at the Elon Softball Classic. The Lancers went on to take the game in a close matchup, 7-5.

#18 South Carolina (4-1)

The Gamecocks opened up their 2021 season at the UNF Tournament before sweeping a mid-week double header against Coastal Carolina.
The hosts are currently hitting .504 as a team with a 0.88 ERA in the circle. They are currently outscoring their opponents 38-10.
In the lone all-time meeting between the two programs, South Carolina picked up an 8-1 victory in 1987.

#16 Duke (8-1)

The Blue Devils have opened the season strong, including an upset win on the road at #5 LSU helping them to rise to the #16 spot in the national rankings.
Duke s led in the circle by Shelby Walters who enters the tournament with a 0.86 ERA in 16.1 innings. In the box, Deja Davis is hitting at a .519 clip through nine games with 25 total bases in 27 at-bats.
This weekend will be the first time in program history that Seton Hall and Duke will matchup.

FOLLOW

Both games against South Carolina will be streamed on SECN+. Live stats/live streams can be found here: https://gamecocksonline.com/sports/2020/1/30/2020-gamecock-invitational.aspx?id=3672

WHAT'S AHEAD
The Pirates will return home to host a pair of double headers next weekend against Fordham on Saturday and Lehigh on Sunday.