In the hole of a weight room that is Farley gym, a young man complained that his arm hurt from throwing. The sophomore, who is not a member of any varsity team, had just been playing catch for an hour. Senior softball pitcher Shannon Williams would have laughed at his complaining

Or called him a wuss.

The No. 1 pitcher on the Lady Wildcats team pitched 24 innings, the equivalent of three and a half games, in one day as the hard-luck team lost two to Seton Hall.

Both games were tight going into extra innings, but the first might have been the most impressive. Williams pitched seven shutout innings, leaving the game tied at 0-0 in the eighth inning. In the second game, Williams only gave up one run for an astonishing 15 innings. That’s a total of two runs in 23 innings of work.

Unforunately the ‘Cats couldn’t help their weary warrior much, falling 1-0 in the first and 2-1 in the second, this coming off of two games where they averaged eight runs.

Thankfully, they managed to bounce back and sweep St. John’s here on the Main Line. They beat the Red Storm 5-3, but the excitement came in the second game.

Kristin Haynes and Kat Walsh combined to throw eight innings of five-hit, one-run ball, but the team had only scratched out one run in support, sending the game into extra innings again, for the third time in four games.

Showing its toughness and grit, the team found a way to win. Pinch runner, Lindsey Martin, playing on guts and pure speed, stole second, reached third on a double and stole home on a wild pitch to end the game and complete the sweep.

“My third base coach told me to only run if the ball was hit out of the

infield, but again, instinct set in and right when I saw a loose ball I ran,” said sophomore Martin. “It felt amazing once I was safe because I knew how important it was to the seniors that we remain in the running for the Big East Tournament.”

And it was Martin’s running that put them in this situation. With five games remaining, the ‘Cats are now 4-6 in the Big East and 29-19 overall. This puts them in an apparent 5 way tie for the fourth and final slot.

They have two more Conference games, one against Rutgers and one against Boston College, before the start of the tournament. having won four of their last six, they appear to be peaking at the right time. Martin is just as positive about their chances.

“We just need to be aggressive, and play our game,” she said. “We hope that our big hitters combined with our speed will secure four big wins for us.”