Laura Messina - Softball Coach - Seton Hall University Athletics

Laura Messina

Title:
Pitching Coach
Email:
laura.messina@shu.edu

Laura Messina enters her fifth season as Seton Hall's pitching coach in 2026.

In 2025, with an inexperienced staff outside of Kelsey Carr, Messina guided the young rotation to the third-best team ERA in BIG EAST Play (4.11). Off a year of career-highs, junior pitcher Kyra Kreuscher earned All-BIG EAST Second Team honors.

In 2024, in her third season, Messina coached the Pirates rotation to the second-best team ERA (3.44) in the entire conference. After her dominant 2023 campaign, Kelsey Carr returned to the circle and spun another gem of a season, including pitching the 22nd no-hitter in Seton Hall History against Drexel. At season's end with a 3.35 ERA and 119 strikeouts, Carr once again earned All-BIG EAST First Team honors.

In 2023, Messina helped engineer the strongest pitching staff in the BIG EAST. The Pirates' 2.81 team ERA on the season was tops in the conference, led by BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year Kelsey Carr. Under Messina's guidance, Carr posted the lowest ERA by a Seton Hall pitcher since 2005, while Shelby Smith collected the most strikeouts by a Pirate since 2013. Seton Hall pitchers also led the conference in strikeouts and fewest home runs allowed.

Messina joined the Pirate staff in August of 2021 after serving as an assistant coach on the University of Massachusetts softball staff since July of 2019. In addition to UMass, Messina also held coaching positions at both Connecticut and Fordham. Messina began her collegiate coaching career at Rutgers, where she spent two seasons as a graduate assistant and pitching coach on the Scarlet Knights’ staff.

Messina enjoyed a very strong collegiate playing career at Central Connecticut State. In her four years as a Blue Devil, Messina led her squad to two NEC Tournament Championships in 2013 and 2015 earning automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. The 2014 NEC Pitcher of the Year finished her career with a program-record 100 wins to go along with top career marks in strikeouts, innings pitched and complete games. In 2015, she was named to the USA Softball’s Top 50 Watch List for the Collegiate Player of the Year Award.

The Marlton, N.J. native graduated with a Master’s Degree in Liberal Studies from Rutgers in 2017 and earned her undergraduate degree from Central Connecticut State in 2015.