(Photo Courtesy of Seton Hall Athletics)
NEW YORK – Seton Hall University senior third baseman Meredith Henze (Elkton, Md.) and junior right hander Danielle DeStaso (Congers, N.Y.) were both named to the BIG EAST Softball Weekly Honor Roll Monday it was announced by the league office.
The duo helped the Pirates post a 2-1 record at the East Carolina Pirate Snow Classic last weekend in Greenville, N.C., where SHU picked up victories over Drexel and Delaware State.
For Henze it is the second-straight week she received BIG EAST weekly honors, as she was named the BIG EAST Player of the Week after opening weekend; it is the second time in her career she landed on the Honor Roll and the first since March 21, 2011, during her freshman campaign.
DeStaso, who was a Second-Team All-BIG EAST honoree following the 2013 season, is on the Honor Roll for the first time this season and the third time in her career. It was another impressive weekend at the plate for Henze, who has started off her senior season on an offensive tear. First she extended her home run streak to four-straight games, hitting a solo shot in Seton Hall’s 9-1 win over Drexel on Saturday night.
She followed that up by going 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI as the Pirates beat Delaware State, 7-1, on Sunday, and hit 2-for-4 in the weekend finale at East Carolina.
In three games Henze went 5-for-9 (.556) with a 1.000 slugging percentage and .636 on-base percentage, and she also boasted a 1.000 fielding percentage at third, recording three putouts and seven assists. For the year she is hitting .556 and slugging 1.333 with four home runs, eight RBI and six runs scored.
DeStaso’s presence was felt in the pitching circle and at the plate. She opened up the weekend by throwing five innings against Drexel where she scattered five hits and allowed just one earned run while fanning seven. DeStaso came back to throw 2.2 innings of relief against ECU on Sunday afternoon, where she yielded just a pair of hits and no runs with one strikeout. Her final line for the week was 7.2 innings with eight strikeouts and a 0.91 earned run average.
With eight strikeouts DeStaso increased her career tally to 296, which moved her into sole possession of fifth place in program history.
Offensively she went 2-for-10 but both of her base hits were two baggers and she drove in four runs in the process.
Seton Hall will continue its early season tournament run with four games against a challenging field at the Arizona State Diamond Devil Invitational on Friday-Sunday, Feb. 21-23, in Tempe, Ariz. The Pirates open tournament competition against No. 5/5 Arizona State on Friday night at 9:30 p.m. (ET).
Player of the Week
Kirsten Verdun – DePaul, LHP/1B
Pitcher of the Week
Mary Connolly – DePaul, RHP
Weekly Honor Roll
Erin Burner – St. John’s, SS/C
Danielle DeStaso – Seton Hall, RHP/DP
Meredith Henze – Seton Hall, 3B
Grace Kramer – St. John’s, RHP
