Junior Erin Howard smacked a grand slam as part of an eight-run sixth inning breaking a 7-7 tie, powering the Seton Hall Pirates to a come-from-behind victory over the Scarlet Knights on Wednesday afternoon in Piscataway.
Coming off their sweep by the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor, the Knights looked to right the ship with an afternoon match against in-state foe Seton Hall.
All appeared to be going to plan at the Rutgers Softball Complex, as the Knights jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first, aided by RBI doubles from Riley Hwang and L.A. Matthews.
After Seton Hall cut the lead to three, RU again added to their advantage with a two-run RBI single from Addie Osborne in the third, staking them to a 6-1 advantage.
But the pesky Pirates continued to chip away at the Rutgers lead, scoring one in the fourth and another in the fifth, cutting the deficit to 6-3.
The game was seemingly put out of reach in the bottom of the fifth when a solo home run from Matthews put RU up, 7-3, much to the delight of the hometown crowd.
That hit should have solidified the Rutgers lead, but the game soon unraveled from there.
The sixth inning rally by the Pirates first tied the contest, but it was soon broken open when Howard’s game-changing grand slam put Seton Hall up by four.
Now down 11-7, the Scarlet Knights picked up one run in the bottom of the sixth when a sacrifice fly from Bailey Briggs scored senior Jillian Anderson, but that would be the end of the Rutgers offense.
The Pirates then put up four more in the top of the seventh and outpaced the Knights by a final score of 15-8, handing RU their fourth straight loss. Dezaria Johnson took the loss in relief for Rutgers, while Kelsey Carr picked up her thirteenth victory of the season for Seton Hall.
With a season record of 17-28, the Scarlet Knights will begin a three-game series against Big Ten opponent Northwestern on Friday, April 18. Games on Saturday and Easter Sunday will follow against the Wildcats, with all three contests taking place in Piscataway and available on the Big Ten Plus network.
