The Seton Hall softball team opened up its 2013 campaign at the Campbell University Hampton Inn Campbell Stampede Tournament in Buies Creek, N.C. this past weekend. The tournament featured four games for the Pirates, two on Friday and the other two wrapping up Saturday.
The team wrapped their weekend up with a showdown with host Campbell University. The Pirates' bats exploded for four hits and a pair of homeruns in the top half of the first inning off the bats of Brittany Hammer and Danielle DeStaso.
The early offense for the Pirates gave them a commanding 5-0 lead before Campbell even had a chance to bat.
DeStaso started the game at pitcher for Seton Hall. She tossed three innings, allowing five runs on six hits with four strikeouts.
Campbell answered in their first at-bat, bringing home three to cut their deficit to 5-3. They would add another run in each of the next two innings, bringing the game to a 5-5 tie after three innings.
Neither team scored again until the seventh when the squads swapped runs. The Camels were able to push a run across in the bottom half of the eighth inning to take the game 7-6.
DeStaso finished the game going 3-4 with an RBI. Alex Rabbetts was 2-for-3 with an RBI while Hammer hit 2-4, driving in one and scoring once.
Jen Metzger relieved DeStaso at pitcher to start the fourth inning and gave up just two scores over 4.1 innings of work, giving up three hits with four strikeouts.
The Pirates first game of Day Two featured a 5-3 victory over Robert Morris University. Casey Moses started the game for the Pirates, and pitched two innings, which included one hit, two unearned runs, two walks and one strikeout.
Metzger came on in relief and gave five innings of work on three hits, one run, two walks, and five strikeouts. She was credited the win for her performance.
The Pirates' offense came mostly from centerfielder Yasmin Harrell, shortstop Brittany Hammer, and Rabbetts. Harrell and Rabbetts each tallied one hit and one RBI each while Hammer was able to contribute another run on a pair of singles. Sophomore Colltey Sheldon also contributed for the Pirates, going 2-3 with a run scored.
With the win Seton Hall took a 3-0 lead over Robert Morris in the all-time series.
On Friday, the team split a pair of games, beating St. Bonaventure, 12-5 before falling to George Washington, 8-0. In that first game on Friday, Seton Hall tallied three hits over the first two innings against St. Bonaventure before finally getting on the board with a pair of runs in the third.
DeStaso stole the show for the Pirates' offense by going 5 -5 with seven RBI in the victory over the Bonnies.
DeStaso was also awarded the victory after she pitched seven innings of work on seven hits, three earned runs, four walks and 10 strikeouts. Other highlights for the Pirates included back-to-back homeruns by Kirby Groves and Whitney Jones. It was the first career long ball for Jones.
This matchup with the Bonnies was just the second matchup in school history and Seton Hall now leads the all-time series, 2-0.
In the second game, Metzger was given the ball for the Pirates. She did not allow a hit through the first two innings; however, the game got away from her after that.
The Colonials also muscled to a seven-run third inning and dominant pitching by George Washington's Meghan Rico helped secure the victory. It was the first ever meeting between the Pirates and George Washington.
However, the two squads are scheduled to meet twice more this season in the George Washington Colonial Classic on March 2-3, and then again at the UMBC Dawg Pound Invitational on March 10.
The Pirates return to action Friday, Feb. 22in Jacksonville, Fla. at the Jacksonville University Invitational Tournament. There they will face, University of Delaware, Jacksonville University, University of South Alabama and Mount St. Mary's University.
David Heim can be reached at david.heim@student.shu.edu. He can also be found on Twitter @davidheim12.
