Five-game weekend ahead for softball in tournament

Seton Hall softball posted a 1-2 record during the season's first weekend and will hit the road once again in the UCF & Court­yard by Marriott Tournament in Orlando, Fla.

Over the weekend, the Pirates traveled to Farmville, Va., to par­ticipate in the Lancer Lead-Off Tournament.

The Hall's lone win was against Big East rival St. John's. The Pirates took down the Red Storm in nine innings, winning 7-6.

The two loses for the Pirates were at the hands of UMBC, 2-1, and host Longwood, with a final of 8-5.

This weekend, Seton Hall will be playing five games in three days.

On Friday, the Pirates open with two games, starting with Eastern Michigan at 1 p.m. and against the host team, Central Florida, immediately following the first game at 3:30 p.m.

On Saturday, the Hall returns to play another doubleheader starting with Florida Gulf Coast at 9 a.m. and Jacksonville at 11 a.m.

On Sunday, the Pirates will conclude the tournament with one game against Florida Gulf Coast at 9 a.m.

While the Pirates showed some really good things over the first weekend of play, head coach Ray Vander May said he thinks that there is room for improve­ment before conference play be­gins.

"First is that we need to cut down on the mistakes," Vander May said. "We have been making a bunch of mental mistakes. I also want us to be less nervous out there. I think that will go away as the season goes on. Also, our clutch hitting needs to step up. We are getting the runners in scoring position, but we just aren't driv­ing them in."

Coming into next weekend's tournament, the Pirates are facing teams with combined records of 12-18.

Not one of the teams the Hall faces in the tournament has a re­cord over .500.

Central Florida enters with the best record at 4-5 while Florida Gulf Coast comes in at 4-6 and Jacksonville at 4-7.

Eastern Michigan will play their first game of the season on Friday against Florida Gulf Coast at 11 a.m., before they take on the Pirates later that day.

The Pirates' opponents are a combined 8-9 in neutral-site games, while the Pirates are 1-2 in those games this season.

Over the first weekend, fresh­men Danielle DeStaso took home Big East weekly honor roll hon­ors.

DeStaso went 5-9 at the plate with two home runs and four RBI's despite going 1-3 from the plate in the Hall's lone win open­ing weekend.

The Hall begins play in the tournament against Eastern Mich­igan on Friday, with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.

Joseph Pergola can be reached at joseph.pergola@stu­dent.shu.edu