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Washington, D.C. – The Fordham softball team dropped a tough 1-0 result in Friday's Atlantic 10 tournament quarterfinals match-up to #5 Saint Joseph's when Kerrie Kortmann's solo home run landed just inside the foul pole to give the Hawks their second win in two days. With the loss, the Rams fall to 35-19 on the season with tomorrow's opponent still to be determined. Saint Joseph's improves to 24-24-1 overall.
Fordham will play the winner of #4 Saint Louis and either #2 Dayton or #3 Massachusetts on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
Rachel Gillen and Saint Joseph's Madison Clarke took turns shutting down both offenses for five straight innings until Kortmann's solo home run in the sixth decided the contest. Gillen allowed just three hits on the day, with only one coming before that frame, but fell to 14-10 with the result, her first loss since March 26. It was the grad student's 37
th career complete game. Clarke earned her eighth win of the season while Ashley Ventura came out of the bullpen to throw two scoreless innings for the first save of her season.
Fordham tallied six hits but stranded seven runners in the contest. A-10 Player of the Year
Lindsay Mayer went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate with Gillen,
Lauren Quense, and
Morgan Figueroa picking up the other three. The Rams had two hits in the second with one out but couldn't get them around to score and had another chance in the seventh when Quense led off with a single to shallow left field and advanced to second on an errant throw. However, Fordham couldn't bring the junior around to score.
The Rams now wait to find out tomorrow's opponents. The three-time defending champions will need to win four games in a row between Saturday and Sunday if they want to retain their title, while a loss will send the top overall seed home.
Keep up with the schedule on FordhamSports.com as well as @FordhamSoftball on Twitter for more information on ways to watch and listen.
