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Recap: Pirates Sweep Johnnies in Three-Game Series to Improve to Third in BIG EAST Standings

Date: April 3, 2023

By: Alyssa Martinez-Tovar, Justin Oosterwyk, and Bobby Steiner

Shelby Smith on the mound for SHU.

Seton Hall Athletics

The Seton Hall Pirates softball team (18-11, 7-3 CONF) went into a BIG EAST matchup on Friday against St. John’s University (13-15, 4-3 CONF) and started the three-game series with a 5-0 victory.

The Pirates came back home to South Orange ready to defend their home turf, and in hopes to take the series at whole. They would start off strong with Taylor Hill hitting a homerun down the left field side. This would leave St. John’s to do some work in the second inning, but the Pirates came to play, and held up their defense strong.

Headed into the second inning, the Pirates would have the top of their lineup doing the work, as Ashley Colonnetta would single into left field, having her teammates on base advance one and even have Lauren Caye score, to put the score at 2-0 going into the third.

Kelsey Carr was feeling the nice weather and having fun at the mound, only giving up three hits and four walks the whole game. The Pirates were not done yet, as Olivia Gilbert would join the hitting rally as she hit a double to right field bringing in Abby Wingo to make it 3-0.

Going into the fourth, St. John’s was trying to look for a base hit to get them going and out of this scoring drought. However, they would play a little more aggressive trying to swing at balls or even waiting for a walk, but Kelsey Carr and the Pirates did not give them anything easy.

At the bottom of the fourth, St. John’s would get a little careless with the ball, as Lela Allen would hit the gap in right field, and because of an error would make it to second while scoring Miranda Arruda, now making the score 4-0.

It was not looking too hot for St. John’s going into the fifth as they would have their top three batters not getting on base, and the one time they did, the other half of the lineup could not move them into scoring position.

Now at the bottom of the fifth, Olivia Gilbert for the Pirates would hit her second double of the game, again scoring Wingo, now having the score at 5-0. The Pirates bats were on fire and would end with nine hits, five runs and only two strikeouts.

St. John’s would end only three hits and no runs. The final score for the Pirates would be 5-0 taking the big win to start the series off strong.

Alyssa Martinez-Tovar can be reached at alyssa.martineztovar@student.shu.edu.

 

Seton Hall Pirates softball won the second game of a three-game series against St. John’s Red Storm (13-16, 4-4 CONF) with a final score of 4-1.

The Pirates move to 19-11 on the season and an 8-3 record in conference play as they continue to move up the BIG EAST conference standing. As of today, the Pirates sit second in the conference, three games back of Butler with an 8-0 conference record.

Shelby Smith led the charge for the Pirates pitching seven innings and only allowing one run on the afternoon. From start to finish she had complete control, striking out 10 batters on the afternoon.

With her 10 strikeouts, Smith reached the milestone of 300 strikeouts during her Pirates career. Smith is only the seventh Pirate pitcher to achieve the feat and the first since Reganne Camp achieved the milestone back in 2020.

Offensively, it was a whole team effort to earn the victory, highlighted by Abby Wingo’s solo shot to centerfield. That hit extends Wingo’s hitting streak to 14, and she has 21 games with a hit in her last 22 games. Wingo’s hitting streak is tied for the second-longest in program history matching Yasmin Harrell’s streak from 2013. Harrell’s record is 16-straight games with a hit from back in 2016.

Shelby Smith also helped herself out with an RBI single in the first inning scoring Taylor Hill. Erin Howard also had two hits on the afternoon with an RBI. And to finish off the scoring, Hannah Alexander hit a sacrifice fly to seal the victory for the Pirates.

Justin Oosterwyk can be reached at justin.oosterwyk@student.shu.edu.

 

The Seton Hall Pirates softball team (20-11, 9-3 CONF) completed a series sweep of the St. John’s Red Storm (13-17, 4-5 CONF) Sunday afternoon, winning 4-2.

The Pirates offense started off hot in the first inning, scoring all four runs off of Hannah Mearns. Lela Allen opened up the scoring by legging out an RBI triple that drove in Taylor Hill.

Allen would be driven in during the next at bat, as Shelby Smith would crush a double to right centerfield. A two-run single by Erin Howard would cap off the Pirates’ offensive outburst and ended Means’ outing after just 0.2 innings.

Abby Wingo’s 14-game hitting streak would come to an end, but she did draw a walk and scored a run.

With this early cushion, Sydney Babik had a solid start, going four innings and striking out three batters, while only allowing one walk.

Despite the strong performance by Babik, the Red Storm chipped away at the Pirates’ lead in the game’s middle innings. St. John’s got on the board in the third, when London Jarrard’s double sent Jess Bianco home.

In the next inning, Sydney Totarsky singled to center field to drive in Anese Thompson, cutting the Seton Hall lead in half. Outside of these two hits, Babik made quick work of the St. John’s lineup.

The rest of the game was characterized by the bullpens. For St. John’s, Loreley Francia provided 5.1 innings of scoreless ball out of the pen. For Seton Hall, Kelsey Carr came in for three lights-out innings of relief.

While Francia tallied six strikeouts, the Pirates were still able to make solid contact at times. The lone baserunner allowed from the second inning onward was a walk by Taylor Hill in the fifth.

The Seton Hall lead would prove to be insurmountable, however, as Carr shut down the Red Storm’s batters. She had her electric relief appearance just two days after pitching a complete game.

Carr’s command was on point for those three innings, making frequent use of the inside part of the plate. Of her four strikeouts, half of them were looking. Many times, she battled back from falling behind in counts 3-0 and 3-1 to record an out.

This appearance was her first save of the season and lowered her ERA to 1.48.

The Pirates’ next game will be Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m., as they have a doubleheader vs. Rider at Mike Sheppard Sr. Field.

Bobby Steiner can be reached at robert.steiner@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Softball, Women's Softball

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