Seton Hall concludes its Spring Break road trip through the mid-Atlantic with four games at the UMBC Dawg Pound Invitational. Although the Pirates will not play at UMBC, instead facing Coppin State and Princeton on Saturday in Baltimore, before playing George Washington in a doubleheader on Sunday. The Pirates have fared well in UMBC Dawg Pound games over the past two seasons, posting a 5-2 record at the tournament, including a 3-1 mark in 2012 with a 4-2 win over Coppin State.

• Seton Hall leads the all-time series with Coppin State, 2-0. The two programs met for the first time on March 11, 2011, a 3-1 SHU win, and again on March 10, 2012.

• Princeton leads the all-time series with Seton Hall, 24-12, although the Pirates have controlled play in the more recent meetings. The two teams split a doubleheader when they played last season.

• The first-ever game between Seton Hall and George Washington came in the first week of the season. After cold weather canceled last weekend's game between the two squads, they will play twice on Sunday in Washington, D.C.

Seton Hall only played three games at the GW Colonial Classic, beating Dartmouth but splitting a pair of games with Bucknell. In a midweek clash with Maryland on Tuesday, the Pirates had strong offensive performances from Maria DeLuca and Alex Rabbetts en route to a 6-2 win. Danielle DeStaso threw a full seven innings to pick up the victory. Snow canceled a doubleheader with Virginia scheduled for Thursday in Charlottesville.

Freshman Alex Rabbetts smacked the first home run of her career, sending a three-run shot over the wall to help seal a 6-2 Seton Hall win at Maryland on March 5.

Freshman center fielder Yasmin Harrell has already shown a knack for swiping bases. So far this season she leads the team and ranks fifth in the BIG EAST with five steals and she has only been caught stealing once.

Junior Maria DeLuca brings a team-best five-game hitting streak into the weekend. Over the past five games DeLuca is hitting .353 with six RBI, including a pair of multi-RBI performances. She went 1-for-4 with two RBI against Maryland on March 5.

Senior shortstop Brittany Hammer is quickly approaching the top-10 in school history in a pair of offensive categories. With 21 career doubles she sits just two shy of tying Jen O'Connor and Leah Menichetti for 10th place in program history and her .297 lifetime batting average is just three points shy of Kealan Waldron in 10th place with a .300 career average.

Sophomore Danielle DeStaso and junior Jen Metzger are close to cracking the Seton Hall top-10 in strikeouts. DeStaso has already fanned 140 batters in her career while Metzger has 124 career strikeouts. The 10th-place spot is currently occupied by Heather Sykes with 148-career strikeouts.

After missing the first three weeks of the season due to injury, junior third baseman Meredith Henze was back in the Pirates' lineup for the first time in Seton Hall's 5-0 win over Dartmouth on March 2. She was just a defensive substitution in her first game back and recorded her first at bat against Bucknell on March 3.

Led by Brittany Hammer's 3-for-4 performance at the plate Seton Hall closed out play at the Jacksonville University Invitational with a 5-3 win over Mount St. Mary's on Feb. 23. The senior shortstop drove in three runs in the win while sophomore Danielle DeStaso picked up the win, allowing just one run over 4.2 innings with four strikeouts.

Junior Maria DeLuca had her first breakout game of the season when she went 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI against Delaware on Feb. 22. She leads the team with 12 RBI and ranks second in batting (.353), total bases (22) and slugging percentage (.647).

Sophomore Danielle DeStaso was named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll on Feb. 11, after leading Seton Hall to a 2-2 week at the Hampton Inn Campbell Stampede Tournament in Buies Creek, N.C. DeStaso finished the week hitting .692, with a 1.385 slugging percentage and eight RBI. It was the second time in her career DeStaso landed on the BIG EAST Honor Roll.

In Seton Hall's season opening 12-5 victory against St. Bonaventure sophomore Danielle DeStaso took direct aim at the Pirate record books. She went 5-for-5 with seven RBI and 11 total bases to set a new single-game school record in all three categories. Making her performance more impressive, she faced all but three batters as the starting pitcher to pick up the win in the process.

A couple of freshmen made a significant impact for the Pirates in the first week of action. Center fielder Yasmin Harrell and catcher/infielder Alex Rabbetts both started all four games at the Campbell Stampede Tournament. As the lead off hitter, Harrell scored a team-high five runs, hitting .286 with a stolen base. Rabbetts hit .250, driving in a pair of runs, starting three games at catcher and one at third base.

Seton Hall played its first extra inning game of the season, falling 7-6 in eight innings to Campbell on Feb. 9. Heading into the seventh inning with the score knotted at 5-5, both teams scored one run and after holding the Pirates in the top half of the eighth, Campbell escaped with the win in the bottom half of the frame.

Senior shortstop Brittany Hammer led Seton Hall with 34 runs scored during the 2012 season which ranks as the sixth-highest single-season total in program history. Katie Pierce holds the all-time Seton Hall single season run record with 47 set during the 2006 campaign.

Seton Hall had a knack for turning double plays throughout the 2012 season and the Pirates were one of the best in the nation in doing so. Seton Hall ranked 38th in the country with 0.38 double plays per game, and second in the BIG EAST with 20 double plays turned all season.

Seton Hall sees all four of its top pitchers from last season return to the pitchers circle for 2013 in senior Brooke Rickards, junior Jen Metzger, sophomore Danielle DeStaso and sophomore Casey Moses. Combined, those four threw 350.2 of Seton Hall's 357.2 innings pitched a season ago.

Senior Brittany Hammer is the top returning offensive threat from last year's squad. She started in all 53 games for the Pirates, one of only three players to do so and the only one that is back in 2013, ranking second on the team with a .300 average and third with four home runs, 18 RBI and eight doubles.

Junior right hander Jen Metzger was off to a great start to her sophomore campaign in 2012 before she was derailed by injury. Limited to just 10 appearances and six starts last year, Metzger posted a 5-2 overall record and a team-leading 2.30 earned run average with 39 strikeouts in 45.2 innings pitched. She returns healthy to start the 2013 season.

Sophomore Danielle DeStaso was forced to step up and throw a lot of innings during her freshman season and the result was one of the most impressive single-season strikeout performances in program history. She finished her first collegiate season with 105 strikeouts, which was just eight shy of Misty Beaver's all-time freshman mark of 113 set in 1998 and already ranks 11th in Seton Hall history.

Head coach Paige Smith has put together a challenging non-conference schedule to help prepare her team for BIG EAST action. The Pirates will face three teams that were either ranked or receiving votes in both the NFCA and ESPN/USA Today Preseason Top-25 polls in Hofstra, Texas Tech and South Alabama.

The Seton Hall softball program is under new management with the addition of first-year head coach Paige Smith to the program. Smith comes to Seton Hall after posting five winning seasons at Adelphi (2008-12) where she led the Panthers to a pair of NCAA Tournament berths. In five seasons at Adelphi, Smith posted an overall record of 169-104-1. She also had assistant coaching stints with St. John's (2007), North Idaho (2004-06) and Louisburg (2003).

Seton Hall welcomes four fresh faces to the program for the 2013 season in catcher/infielder Alex Rabbetts (Corona, Calif.), outfielder/shortstop Yasmin Harrell (Cheektowaga, N.Y.), catcher Faith Laudano (Islip, N.Y.) and infielder/outfielder Jackie DiPietro (Horsham, Pa.).

First-year head coach Paige Smith announced two additions to her coaching staff for the 2013 season in Betsy White and Lindsey Curran. White, who graduated from Lipscomb in 2005 and spent the last two seasons on Smith's staff at Adelphi, will work primarily with the Pirates' pitchers. Curran played for Rutgers from 2009-12, making three-straight BIG EAST Tournament appearances.

Brittany Hammer was named the Seton Hall SAAC Junior Female Athlete of the Year at the annual SAAC Awards Banquet last spring. She was one of the Pirates' offensive leaders a year ago, starting in all 53 games and batting .300 with 34 runs scored, 18 RBI, eight doubles and four home runs.

The Seton Hall University softball team received 24 points and was picked to finish 12th overall in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches Poll. The Pirates finished 13th in the league last season with a 3-19 record against league foes. USF earned 134 points and seven first-place votes to start the season as the preseason favorites to win the BIG EAST.

The 2013 BIG EAST softball championship will be held Thursday-Saturday, May 9-11, at the University of South Florida Softball Stadium in Tampa, Fla. The top eight teams in the conference will qualify for the single elimination tournament with the winner picking up the BIG EAST's automatic berth to the 2013 NCAA Championship. The BIG EAST Championship game will be held Saturday, May 11, at 4 p.m., and will be broadcast live on ESPN2.

For all of the latest news and updates on the Seton Hall University softball team, follow the Pirates on Twitter @SHUSoftball.