Softball bids farewell to three seniors in final home series

The Seton Hall softball team will host DePaul in its final home series this weekend at Ivy Hill Park.

The Pirates and Blue Demons will play a doubleheader on Sat­urday and the home finale on Sunday.

On Wednesday, Seton Hall lost a double-header to Notre Dame by scores of 8-0 in five in­nings and 5-1.

The Pirates begin the series with a 20-27 overall record and 2-14 in Big East conference play, dead last in the standings.

Currently the Hall is riding a five-game losing streak and have lost nine of their past 11 games.

DePaul entered this sea­son atop the Big East Preseason Coaches' Poll, but enters the se­ries against the Pirates fifth in the conference with a 28-18 overall record and 9-7 in Big East play.

The Blue Demons enter this weekend coming off of a split doubleheader to Syracuse on Wednesday. DePaul also defeated Illinois on Tuesday by a score of 3-0, which snapped a four game losing streak.

"Depaul always has a good reputation," head coach Ray Vander May said. "We're play­ing really good conference teams right now. We should look for­ward to playing them. We've got­ten better as a softball team. This team is way different than last year's team."

Senior catcher/first baseman Kristin Kaelin leads the Pirates with a .333 average and 35 RBIs, which is fourth in the Big East. Junior shortstop Brittany Ham­mer is second on the team with a .310 average and tied for fourth in the Big East with 33 runs scored.

Freshman pitcher Casey Mo­ses leads the team with six wins, a 2.41 ERA and eight complete games.

DePaul is led by sophomore outfielder/first baseman Megan Coronado, who third in the Big East with a .395 average and fourth with a .458 on-base per­centage, and sophomore pitcher/first basemen

Kirsten Verdun has a .362 av­erage and .449 on-base percent­age, both 9th in the Big East. She is also tied for fourth among Big East pitchers in wins with 18 and sixth in strikeouts with 159.

This weekend will mark the fi­nal home games for the team's se­niors, leaving coach Vander May with mixed feelings.

"It's always tough," he said. "Our three seniors have really produced for us. It's a sad week­end in one respect, but in another ,you're proud that they've come this far."

"We wish we could have them for one more year," he said.

Game one of Saturday's dou­bleheader begins at 12 p.m. with game two set for 2:30 p.m. Thurs­day's game will begin at 11 a.m.

Chris Shedlock can be reached at christopher.shedlock@student.shu.edu