ORLANDO -- The Fordham softball team opened the 2016 season Friday with a pair of losses to nationally-ranked teams at the UCF Knights Invitational. The Rams lost a heartbreaker in the opener to #19/21 James Madison, 1-0, before losing in five innings to #5/5 Alabama, 9-1.
Fordham was able to muster only one hit against the Dukes, as junior
Amy Van Hoven recorded the lone safety with a single to center field to begin the top of the fourth. But the starting second baseman was left stranded at second when the frame ended.
Van Hoven was also left on second base when the top of the first ended, after she was hit by a pitch, and she reached base a third time in the top of the sixth when she was walked with one out, which advanced fellow classmate
Sydney Canessa, who also
drew a walk, to second and produced the Rams' best scoring chance of the day. However, a strikeout and a pop out ended the threat.
JMU scored the contest's only run in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out single off starter
Rachel Gillen. The graduate student went the distance, scattering four hits, walking none while fanning seven in the loss.
Megan Good started for the Dukes and tossed the first 4.0 innings, as she walked one and struck out two. Jailyn Ford pitched the final 3.0 innings to earn the victory in the circle. Erica Field had two of the four hits and the lone RBI for JMU.
Against the Crimson Tide, junior
Lauren Quense allowed two-first inning runs, before Canessa scored on a throwing error by the catcher with one out in the bottom of the third to trim the deficit to 2-1.
Alabama responded with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth, before putting the game away with a five-spot in the top of the fifth to make the final score, 9-1.
Fordham managed four hits in the contest; a double from Canessa, and singles from junior
Lindsay Mayer, Gillen and freshman
Jessica Hughes, who earned her first collegiate hit.
Quense took the loss in the circle, after allowing seven runs – three earned – on eight hits to go along with three walks and three strikeouts.
Madi Moore picked up the complete-game win, as she allowed four hits, walked two and whiffed two.
The Rams return to action Saturday at the UCF Knights Invitational when they take on Rutgers at 9:30 a.m. and the hosts, who are ranked #17/17, at 2 p.m.
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