Box Score April 27, 2011
Final Stats
Bronx, N.Y. -
The final home games of the season for the Fordham softball team proved to be an historic day as Chelsea Plimpton flirted with perfection, Jen Mineau found it for the fourth time, and Jocelyn Dearborn became Fordham's all-time hits leader while raising her average to .400.
First there was May 26, 1959, when a journeyman pitcher named Harvey Haddix was perfect for 12 innings, but eventually gave a hit and lost. More recently, on June 2, 2010, Tigers starter Armando Galaragga lost an apparent perfect game on a blown call by umpire Jim Joyce. Chelsea Plimpton had a similar situation to these two men on Wednesday as the Rams beat the Peahens 9-0 in five innings.
Sufficed to say, Wednesday might have been the best pitching performance of the season for the Rams. In game one, Plimpton was masterful. The Peahens managed to hit just one ball out of the infield in the entire game (and, ironically enough, it was for an out when Vanessa Acosta flew out to Lindsey Kay Bright in the third). Plimpton struck out nine batters and faced just one over the minimum.
Fordham gave her all the help she would need in the first two innings. In the opening stanza, Dearborn led off with a double. She advanced to third on a single from Nicole Callahan. Samantha Pellechio fouled out to first base, and, on a good base running play, Callahan advanced to second and drew a throw, which allowed Dearborn to score. Later in the inning, Chelsea Palumbo made the score 3-0 as she laced a two-RBI double to right-center. She later scored on a Jessica Crowley base hit.
The Rams scored five more times in the second to win 9-0. Dearborn singled home Meghan Shager for the Fordham's sixth run. Callahan drove in Dearborn with another singled to make it 7-0 Rams. The final two runs came on a Beckah Wiggins triple to right center that plated Jamie LaBovick and Pellechio. Wiggins is now third on the team in triples with three.
As for Plimpton, she took her perfect game into the fifth where she got the first two batters on a pop-up and a strikeout. The third batter of the inning, Monique Flores, hit a two-strike dribbler that went about 16 feet down the third base line. By the time Jo Krasnisky got to it, Flores was past the bag and the perfect game was gone. Plimpton kept her composure and struck out Acosta to end the game.
Game Two
In an ironic fact, Jen Mineau threw her first career perfect game on March 10, 2009. The opponent in that game was the St. Peter's Peahens. She duplicated that accomplishment on Wednesday. In her five innings of perfection, she struck out 12 and had no balls leave the infield for the entire game.
The Fordham offense posted runs in each of the first four innings. In the first, Dearborn hit an innocuous triple off the wall in right field which vaulted her past Allison Twarowski for the all-time hits lead. She scored the first run of the game on a Callahan single.
In the second, Dearborn extended her record with a three-run home run that plated Bright and Jessica Richards to make the score 4-0 for the Fordham. In the third a sacrifice fly from LaBovick scored Pellechio with the fifth run. The sixth run was Gabby Luety, who scored on a Palumbo double.
Fordham completed the scoring in the fourth as Luety hit a sacrifice fly and Wiggins blasted a two-run home run to give the Rams a 9-0 lead. Mineau retired St. Peter's in order in the fifth, to get the perfect game. It was Mineau's seventh career no-hitter and fourth perfect game.
With the sweep, Fordham improves to 34-17 on the season. The Rams return to action on Friday, April 29 when they travel to New England to face Massachusetts. This weekend will see Fordham play four games against the Minutewomen and the Rhode Island Rams and will help sift through the logjam in the A-10 standings.
