The Hall Drops Two Tight Setbacks To St. John's

Saturday, April 13

South Orange, N.J.

12 p.m.

Seton Hall University

17-17, 4-4

St. John's

20-16, 8-1

St. John's

Seton Hall

4/13/2019 6:30:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 GAME 1 BOX GAME 2 BOX

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. – The Seton Hall softball team (17-18, 4-5 BIG EAST) dropped two tight ones to rival St. John's (21-16, 9-1 BIG EAST) in a doubleheader on Saturday at Mike Sheppard, Sr. Field. The Hall and first-place Red Storm will conclude their three-game series with the finale on Sunday at 12 p.m.

Game 1 – St. John's 4, Seton Hall 3 (Eight Innings)

How it Happened

Neither side got on the board until the fourth inning, with SHU's Madison Strunk (Adkins, Texas) and SJU's Madison Morris trading zeroes over the first three frames
St. John's finally broke through with two runs in the top of the fourth, stringing together three-straight singles to open the frame and using an RBI groundout to go up 2-0
The Hall answered with two of its own in the bottom of the fourth. After a walk and a Hailey Arteaga (Upland, Calif.) double, Destini Peck (Riverside, Calif.) knocked in a run with a sac fly and Baylee Allender (Rosharon, Texas) roped an RBI double to left to even the score
St. John's re-took the lead with an unearned run in the top of the fifth
In the bottom of the sixth, Katherine Matthys (Spring Branch, Texas) came up clutch with a two-out RBI single that leveled the score once again at 3-3
After both sides went quietly in the seventh, St. John's went ahead in extras with another unearned run in the top of the eighth
Allender stroked a one-out single in the bottom of the eighth to bring the potential winning run to plate. A batter later, Darby Pandolfo (Massapequa, N.Y.) nearly walked it off for The Hall but her deep drive to left center was caught inches from the fence and St. John's held on

Notes and Numbers

St. John's held a slight 8-6 edge in hits, while SHU committed the game's lone two errors
Allender and Matthys both had multi-hit efforts for The Hall
Both Arteaga and Janae Barracato (Hempstead, N.Y.) doubled, staying tied for the BIG EAST lead with 13 two-baggers apiece this season
Barracato reached base three times in four plate appearances, adding a walk and hit batsmen
Strunk made the start and pitched into the fifth inning, tossing 4.1 innings of two run ball with four hits, a walk and two strikeouts
Both Chrisa Head (Adkins, Texas) and Reganne Camp (Bloomington, Ill.) did not allow an earned run in relief, combining for six strikeouts in 3.2 innings

Game 2 – St. John's 2, Seton Hall 0

How it Happened

Once again two of the top offenses in the BIG EAST were held off the board early, as SJU's Angela Saric and Camp dueled into the fourth inning with no score
The Red Storm scratched two across in the top of the fourth with an RBI single and a run-scoring fielder's choice after an error extended the inning
The Hall put the first two batters on in the bottom of the sixth to force a pitching change, but Morris came on out of the pen to induce a fly out before back-to-back strikeouts
Head relieved Camp in the sixth for two scoreless innings, and the Pirates would again threaten in the bottom of the seventh
Pandolfo led off the last of the seventh with a long double off the wall and made it to third on a fly out, but would be stranded there by a game-ending strikeout

Notes and Numbers

The Pirates were out-hit 6-1, with each side committing one error
Camp took the tough luck loss after 5.0 solid innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts
Head was nearly flawless in 2.0 hitless innings of relief, striking out four and walking one
Pandolfo finished 1-for-2 with a double and a walk
The Hall is now 25-56 all-time against St. John's, with six of the last nine meetings decide by two runs or fewer

What's Ahead
The Hall and St. John's close their series tomorrow at 12 p.m. The contest will be a Pirate Sports Network "All-Access" production, with head coach Paige Smith "Mic'd Up" throughout the game.