Seton Hall
Softball splits two with Lehigh
Date: April 25, 2019By Rob Ruszkowski
The Seton Hall softball team came away with one win (7-5) and one loss (6-0) against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in their Wednesday afternoon doubleheader at Mike Sheppard, Sr. Field.
Despite her usually stellar pitching, Reganne Camp got in trouble early for the Pirates and allowed three Lehigh runners to cross the plate in her short two innings of work. Things didn’t improve for Seton Hall in the top of the third inning either as Chrisa Head came in to relieve Camp and she gave up four more runs that extended Lehigh’s early lead to 7-1.
However, the Seton Hall bats began to come alive in the bottom of the third as they scored three runs off of Katherine Matthys’s bases clearing triple off of the center field wall. This closed the gap to 7-4 after the Pirates scored a lone run in the bottom of the first as well.
After allowing the Mountain Hawks to score in each of the first three innings, the Pirates shut them out for the remaining four innings as Head retired the side in order in two consecutive innings.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Seton Hall offense exploded yet again as they scored five runs off of RBI’s from Pandolfo, Arteaga, and Matthys to take the lead for the first time in the game.
Seton Hall never gave the Mountain Hawks a chance to come back as Madison Strunk came in to pitch the last two innings. She only allowed three runners to get on base across her two innings of scoreless work.
The winning pitcher for the Pirates was Head, and Parker Boyd picked up the loss for the Mountain Hawks as she threw a complete game for Lehigh. Madison Strunk also picked up her first save of the season for Seton Hall.
In terms of being able to overcome the early six-run deficit, Seton Hall head coach Paige Smith said, “We put ourselves in that situation for a reason – it was to work our way out of it because it’s going to be able to help us down the road.”
In the second game of the afternoon, Lehigh once again got off to a hot start as they scored four combined runs in the first three innings off of Seton Hall’s Mo Sobel.
This time, however, the Pirates were not able to make a dramatic comeback as Lehigh’s Emily Sorem dominated the Pirates by not allowing a single baserunner until there were two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Although Seton Hall was shut out in the second game, there were some scoring opportunities for the Pirates as they left the bases loaded in both the fifth and seventh innings, although they were not able to get a single runner across home plate.
Lehigh scored two more off of Sobel in the sixth inning to extend their lead to 6-0 and Strunk came in again for the Pirates to close out the last inning. Sorem picked up the win for Lehigh after her complete game, and Sobel was credited for the loss.
With only six games left in the regular season for Seton Hall, they sit just a half-game ahead of Providence for the fourth and final playoff spot. Heading into the final two series, head coach Paige Smith said, “We are in the driver’s seat, so I think four out of six does it for us, but I know this team will want to win every game.”
After the doubleheader, Seton Hall moves to 20-22 on the year and Lehigh moves their season record to 19-25. The Pirates will be back in South Orange this weekend for the last time this year when they will host the Georgetown Hoyas for a three-game series that beings with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 26th starting at 12:00 pm.
Robert Ruszkowski can be reached at ruszkoro@shu.edu.
