Box Score May 22, 2010
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The top two seeds in the College Park Regional faced off in Saturday's winner's bracket game, and it was a solo home run in the fourth inning that determined the fate of the Fordham Rams as the overall No. 14 Oklahoma Sooners defeated Fordham, 1-0. With the loss, Fordham will play the winner of the second game between Maryland and Syracuse.
Fordham's defense held Oklahoma to just five hits. The Rams had five hits of their own but couldn't get runs across the plate.
With the loss, Fordham is 48-11 overall. Sophomore Jen Mineau (Schaghticoke, N.Y./Hoosic Valley Central) recorded the loss for Fordham and her record stands at 33-8.
"We didn't execute where we needed to. We put ourselves in a position to win the game, we put runners on, we just couldn't get them in," said head coach Bridget Orchard. "Our defense played a phenomenal game today."
Through the first three innings, Mineau recorded six strikeouts for nine of the outs. Mineau struck out the side in the second inning, taking the No. 5 through 7 batters for a ride as all three went down swinging. She struck out five-straight batters with swinging strikeouts. In total, Mineau had nine K's, eight of them swinging. Mineau allowed one walk.
For Oklahoma, Keilani Ricketts tallied the win. Rickets went all seven innings, had one walk and also struck out nine batters.
The Sooners struck first with a two-out, one-pitch solo-homer by senior Lindsey Vandever. Vandever's ball went over the center field fence. Vendever's homer was her 12th of the season and was the eventual game-winning run.
Oklahoma threatened again in the top of the sixth getting two runners in scoring position with one out. Jocelyn Dearborn (New Milford, Pa./Blue Ridge) ran for a fouled off pop up for out number two and Lindsey Kay Bright (Federal Way, Wash./Decatur) ended the inning running in for a shallow fly ball in left field.
In the final inning, the Sooners once again had a runner in scoring position with no outs. Senior Erin Fisher (Woodinville Wash./Woodinville) ran back to the wall in left field and caught the fly ball for the quick out and kept the runner at bay. Junior Samantha Pellechio (Lebanon, N.J./North Hunterdon) had a hand in the final two outs with a ground out and a pop fly.
Fordham had chances to score in the first inning, getting four base runners on off two hits. Pellechio hit first after two Fordham strikeouts with a single up the middle. Pellechio made it around the bases to third, advancing to second and a hit by pitch and a single by junior Beckah Wiggins (Conklin, N.Y./Susquehanna Valley). With two outs, the rally was ended on a force play at home.
The Rams got runners on in the third, fourth and sixth but just couldn't bring them around to score.
With the loss, Fordham is forced into the third game of the day and will play the winner of the Syracuse-Maryland game. Fordham has already defeated Maryland once so far during Regional play.
Oklahoma guaranteed themselves a spot in the Regional Final which will be played at noon on Sunday.
