Orlando, Fla. – The Fordham softball team swept Saturday's doubleheader on day two of the Diamond 9 Citrus Classic I, defeating Elon, 10-2, in five innings, and Oakland, 2-0. With the results, the Rams improve to 9-4 on the year.
Down 2-0 in the fourth inning against Elon, the Rams offense exploded for six runs and four more in the fifth to end the game on the spot via the run rule. Reigning two-time Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week
Lauren Quense got the start and earned her seventh win in eight attempts to begin the year. The first inning seeing-eye RBI single by Morgan Reich was just the first first-inning run given up by Quense this season and just the second time a Fordham pitcher has allowed an opponent to get on the board in the first inning (#10 Arizona scored three). The Phoenix tacked another on with a fourth-inning RBI double before Fordham rallied for the win.
With two on and one out,
Chelsea Skrepenak reached on an error by the center fielder, allowing
Lindsay Mayer to score, and
Morgan Figueroa knocked in
Madison Aughinbaugh with a single to center a couple pitches later to tie the game up at two apiece.
Jessica Hughes walked to load the bases and
Amy Van Hoven delivered the go-ahead run with a single up the middle, scoring Skrepenak.
Sydney Canessa blew the game open with a bases-clearing double to right center, giving her team a 6-2 cushion. Aughinbaugh relieved Quense in the fifth and allowed just one single in an otherwise clean inning before Hughes delivered her own bases-clearing extra-base hit in the bottom of the frame, a triple, to score Figueroa, Skrepenak, and Aughinbaugh. Hughes scored on the play, as well, on an error by the second baseman which led to an eight-run lead and the game finishing then and there.
Aughinbaugh was electric in the second half of the doubleheader and was nearly perfect, as well, firing seven one-hit innings with no walks and four strikeouts. It was the freshman's first career shutout and second complete game. An error by Hughes in the fifth allowed Marciniak to reach and, in the fifth, Walewski led the frame off with a single to left. Fordham got its first run on a tried-and-true formula – a Hughes walk, stolen base, and run scored on a Canessa double. Mayer scored the other run an inning later, singling to lead off, getting pushed over via a sac bunt, and scoring on Figueroa's two-out single.
The Rams play a one-off to wrap up the Citrus Classic tomorrow morning, against Georgia Southern at 9 a.m.
