Softball Carries Eight-Game Winning Streak into Weekend Series at GW

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham softball team (24-15, 7-1) will look to carry its recent winning momentum into a three-game set in our nation's capital against George Washington (17-15, 5-1) in a battle of the current top two teams in the Atlantic 10. 

UPDATE: Due to the weekend weather forecast, the doubleheader has moved from Saturday to Sunday. Saturday will feature just one contest, at noon, and Sunday will have the original 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. doublehader. 
 
Last Time Out
Fordham picked up a tight 1-0 victory over a very good Lehigh squad on Tuesday afternoon with Lauren Quense firing five one-hit innings and combining with Lindsay Mayer for the team's second combined shutout of the year. Mayer notched her first career save with a pair of scoreless frames.
 
Wednesday's doubleheader against visiting St. Bonaventure was action-packed with offense, lead chances, and two walk-off extra-inning home runs. In game one, the two squads couldn't break a scoreless deadlock for four consecutive innings before the Bonnies got on the board with a two-run two-out single. The Rams answered an inning later via a Jessica Hughes no-doubt solo home run on a full count and a RBI single from Mayer to score Sydney Canessa. Again the bats went cold for two more innings before five runs were scored in the ninth. Quense was replaced by Mayer in the circle after hurling a career high-matching eight innings with nine strikeouts. Mayer allowed a leadoff walk, who was sacrificed over, before inducing a foul out. Emily McDonough's single down the left field line broke the 2-2 tie and would come around to score on a fielding error. The Rams started the ninth with two quick outs before Morgan Figueroa squeezed a single through the right side and Hughes picked up her team-high 19^th walk of the season to put herself on first as the tying run. Amy Van Hoven promptly deposited the first pitch she saw deep over the right field wall for the three-run walk off bomb. The four-bagger also happened to be her first career home run.
 
Game Two featured 13 runs scored and yet another walk-off home run. Allie Bradian, notching her eighth start of the season, had one hit on the day and it happened to also be the game-ender and her first career home run, as well. The Bonnies scored first off Quense, 1-0, before Hughes tied the game up with the second home run of the day, this time off the scoreboard in left center field, before Figueroa's drifting triple down the left field line scored Chelsea Skrepenak in the second to take a brief lead. St. Bonaventure put together a pair of runs in the third to grab a 3-2 lead before Mayer, who finished the day 6-for-7, singled in Van Hoven later in the frame. Both teams would score once more before the wild finish. Mayer allowed the go-ahead run for the second time on the day on a RBI single but helped her own cause with a clutch RBI single down the right field line to tie the game up in the bottom of the seventh, 5-5. Alissa Karjel, already with a solo home run in the game, powered a RBI double to right center to again put the Bonnies up one in the top of the eighth but Fordham ended the doubleheader quickly and with authority. Skrepenak reached on a fielding error and advanced to second, giving Bradian a chance to tie the game up with a well-hit single. Instead, the senior crushed a 3-2 pitch into the left field netting to give the Rams its sixth straight win.
 
Get to Know the Colonials
George Washington has started off Atlantic 10 play with a sweep of La Salle and taking two of three from St. Bonaventure. The Rams will face stiff competition from the Colonials. Junior Monica Macchiarulo has a league-leading .406 average (.600 in six A10 games) and 17 stolen bases on the year, and both Megan Linn (.398) and Paige Kovalsky (.323) are enjoying solid offensive seasons. Linn has a team-high 27 runs scored and Kovalsky leads the team with 21 RBIs. Pitching-wise, sophomore Sarah Costlow has led the way with a 10-6 record and 2.39 ERA in a team-high 108.1 innings. Costlow has also  been fantastic in conference play with a 4-0 mark and 1.04 ERA.
 
Up Next
The Rams return north for a one-off nonconference match-up next Wednesday afternoon in South Orange, N.J. at Seton Hall. First pitch against the Pirates is set for 4 p.m.