DeLuca Named to Honor Roll
4/22/2013 12:00:00 AM | Softball
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – Seton Hall University junior second baseman Maria DeLuca (Cedar Grove, N.J.) was named to the BIG EAST Conference Softball Weekly Honor Roll, it was announced Monday afternoon by the league office.
It is the first time in her career DeLuca has received BIG EAST weekly accolades and she is the fourth Seton Hall softball student-athlete to achieve the feat this season and the second in as many weeks; freshman Alex Rabbetts (Corona, Calif.) was named to the BIG EAST Honor Roll last week.
DeLuca was instrumental in helping the Pirates take two out of three in a critical BIG EAST series at Syracuse University on Saturday-Sunday, April 20-21. With the pair of wins Seton Hall eclipsed its conference win total from each of the last two seasons, reaching four BIG EAST wins for the first time since 2010. The Pirates are currently just a game out of the No. 8 spot in the league standings.
DeLuca smacked a two-run home run in Seton Hall’s 4-1 win in the series opener on Saturday afternoon, going 2-for-2 at the plate, scoring twice and reaching base three times.
She followed that up with a 2-for-5 game in the Pirates’ wild 16-15 win in game two of Saturday’s doubleheader, scoring a run with an RBI. Seton Hall racked up a school-record 19 hits in that game, tying the school record for runs scored in a game and setting a new school record for runs scored in a BIG EAST contest.
Earlier in the week DeLuca was a combined 3-for-5 in a doubleheader against Hofstra. For the week she hit .467 with three RBI and three runs scored, slugging .667 with a .529 on-base percentage.
DeLuca has started in 39 of Seton Hall’s 40 games and ranks second on the team in batting average (.339), slugging percentage (.492) and on-base percentage (.402). She has four home runs, 24 RBI and 22 runs scored, all of which represent new career-high totals for the junior infielder.
Seton Hall returns to action on Tuesday, April 23, when it hosts USF in a midweek BIG EAST doubleheader at Mike Sheppard, Sr. Field. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.
