Philadelphia, Pa. – The Fordham softball team put one foot closer to its fifth-ever Atlantic 10 regular season championship with a doubleheader sweep at La Salle on Saturday afternoon. The rain mostly stayed away as the Rams defeated the Explorers, 5-2, in game one and, 11-0, in five innings in game two, to improve to 41-14 on the year and 17-5 in conference play. La Salle fell to 20-26 and 7-15, respectively.
With the win in game one, the Rams clinched a first-round bye in this upcoming week's Atlantic 10 Championship, and will play an opponent to be determined on Thursday.
The Rams mixed solid offense, batting .260 as a group, with terrific pitching to pick up two victories on the penultimate day of the regular season.
Fordham jumped out to a 3-0 lead after three innings in game one, giving
Lauren Quense all the run support she would need.
Amy Van Hoven, making her first start since March 29 due to injury, dramatically smashed a two-run home run to dead center to open the scoring, and
Jessica Hughes tacked on a third later in the frame with a sac fly. Quense's only two blemishes in the game came in the following inning, allowing solo home runs to Michelle Hagarty and Emma Schweigert.
After two 1-2-3 innings between the two squads,
Lindsay Mayer powered the first pitch of the sixth inning over the left field fence to give the Rams a two-run cushion and Hughes added one more in the seventh with a one-out solo shot to center.
Quense went the distance, allowing two runs on three hits, three hit by pitches, and one walk, while striking out five, to pick up win number 20 on the season, the fifth Ram to ever accomplish the feat in a season.
Madison Aughinbaugh twirled a gem in game two, limiting the Explorers to just one single across five otherwise perfect innings. Jackie Heim took the first pitch against the freshman through the left side for a single but was involved in a double play two batters later to end the frame. Aughinbaugh set down the next 12 batters she faced, striking out seven, to notch her 16
th win of the year.
Madison Shaw's first-inning two-run home run provided all the offense Aughinbaugh would need but the Rams piled on seven in the second inning and two more in the third to take game two, 11-0.
Chelsea Skrepenak started the second with an infield single, Aughinbaugh drove one up the middle to reach, and
Sydney Canessa walked on five pitches to load the bases, prompting La Salle to go to its bullpen. Hughes' drive to the left side was misplayed by the shortstop, scoring Skrepenak and Aughinbaugh, before Shaw blew a single by the second baseman and into the gap to score Hughes and Canessa.
Skylar Johnston walked on four pitches and both her and Shaw moved over a base on a wild pitch. Mayer reached on a fielder's choice but the shortstop's throw home in an attempt to get Shaw out sailed wide so the junior scored freely. Johnston was thrown out at home on a fielder's choice but Aughinbaugh pushed for the eight-run rule with a two-run single up the middle, her second of the frame, to make it 9-0.
Hughes led off the third with an opposite field solo shot and Shaw made it back-to-back jacks with a towering solo blast beyond the batting cage in right to cap the scoring.
All of Mayer, Johnston, Van Hoven, Hughes, and Aughinbaugh each tallied two hits on the day between the two games, with Hughes leading the pack with four runs scored, and Shaw finished with a team-high three hits, all in the second game in which she went 3-for-5 with five RBIs. Canessa finished the day hitless but reached three times via two walks and a hit by pitch, extending a team-high stretch of 18 straight games reaching base.
The Rams hit six home runs and walked nine times compared to eight strikeouts.
Fordham faces off with La Salle in the regular season finale tomorrow at noon.
