Kingston, R.I. – One week after seeing a 13-game winning streak come to an end against Saint Louis, the Fordham softball team started a new one with a three-game series sweep over Atlantic 10 foe Rhode Island on the road, culminating with a 12-4 victory on Sunday. The Rams scored 37 runs over 18 innings. With the results, the Rams maintain their place atop the conference leaderboard and improve to 32-16 and 15-2 in league play. Rhody falls to 12-25 overall and 3-12 in the A-10.
The Rams failed to score in just one of seven innings on Sunday and just two over the course of the entire weekend. Sophomore
Madison Shaw's four home runs and seven RBIs highlighted a total team effort that included 33 hits and 21 walks. Junior
Lauren Quense started each game and came away with three victories, tossing 13 innings and allowing just four earned runs on 10 hits with 14 strikeouts and a 2.15 ERA.
The Rams scored in the first inning as they did in both games on Saturday, starting with a
Jessica Hughes walk for the third straight contest, giving the freshman seven free passes in the series. Hughes advanced on a wild pitch and
Amy Van Hoven reached on an error. The junior stole second to put runners in scoring position and both came around to score on a
Sydney Canessa sacrifice fly and a Lindsey Mayer single. Rhode Island's Julia Waraksy was replaced by Becca Rogers in the circle and she finished the frame.
Fordham added two in the second on two RBI doubles by Van Hoven and
Chelsea Skrepenak and one in the third via Shaw's first home run of the day, a dead center moonshot, to go up 5-0. Rhody finally got to Quense for two runs in the bottom of the frame through a double steal of second and home and a RBI single by Kylie Shivery, both with two outs.
Van Hoven led off the fourth with a no-doubter over the right centerfield wall and the visitors tacked on two more through a Skrepenak fielder's choice that saw Canessa beat out a throw from shortstop to home and a Shaw sac fly. Quense again allowed two two-out RBI knocks to get the hosts close, this time at 8-4 through four.
The two teams exchanged scoreless frames in the fifth before Madi Shaw busted the game wide open with a three-run bomb to right, scoring
Ally Vergona and Skrepenak, to put Fordham up, 11-4. The Rams worked out a final run in the seventh through a Van Hoven opposite-field double and a Skrepenak RBI infield single.
Lindsay Mayer replaced Quense after the fifth and tossed a perfect sixth and worked around a walk and single in the seventh to finish the contest.
Fordham will look to carry its momentum into what should be a thrilling three-game set in Dayton, Ohio against last year's regular season A-10 champions. A doubleheader is scheduled for Saturday, April 30, starting at noon, with game three on Sunday, May 1, also at noon.
