South Florida Takes Two From Softball

GAME ONE BOX SCORE

GAME TWO BOX SCORE

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. The Seton Hall softball team closed its regular season on Sunday with a pair of losses to South Florida, 6-5 and 9-1.  The Pirates (15-34, 9-13) will resume action in the BIG EAST Championship to be held this coming week in South Bend, Ind.

The Bulls (43-21, 15-5) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning of game one on an RBI walk to JoJo Medina.  SHU starter Maura Lund (Oak Park, Ill.) would work out of the bases loaded jam without further damage by retiring the next three batters.

The Pirates finally got their bats going in the fourth inning as Laura Baranek (Orefield, Pa.) led off with a single.  Ashley Constantini (Newark, Del.) later doubled with one out, and Baranek came around to score on an infield hit by Leah Menichetti (Jessup, Pa.).  Amanda Winn (Manahawkin, N.J.) followed with an RBI fielder’s choice and she advanced to second base as USF threw the ball away trying to make a play at the plate on Constantini.  Christa Leighton (Brewster, N.Y.) reached on an error that allowed Menichetti to score, and Danielle Steinseifzer (Plano, Texas) drove home Winn with a line drive single up the middle to make it 4-1.

After allowing two walks to the Bulls in the top of the fifth, Lund was pulled in favor of Kim Schweitzer (Syracuse, N.Y.).  Cat Olnick greeted the new SHU pitcher with a three-run blast that tied the score at four.

The Pirates would take their final lead of the game in the bottom of the frame when Baranek launched her sixth homer of the season over the right field fence.  But USF answered with the game winning rally in the sixth as Britta Giddens hit a two-run shot to make it 6-5.  Cristi Ecks picked up the save for the Bulls with a perfect seventh inning.

Kristen Gordon earned the win in relief, allowing one run over two innings to move to 15-6.  Schweitzer fell to 13-21 on the season.

The Bulls coasted to victory in the second game, scoring three runs in the first, five in the second, and one in the third.  Winn homered in the fifth inning to account for the only SHU run.

Danielle Zanzalari (Carteret, N.J.) took the loss to fall to 0-3.  Gordon picked up her second win of the day for USF.

Steinseifzer, the lone senior on this year's SHU roster, was honored prior to the game in the annual Senior Day ceremony.