Softball Hosts Dayton in Critical A-10 Series

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham softball team (36-13, 12-5 A-10) is fresh off taking two of three at home against George Washington and have won four of their last five in Atlantic 10 play. The Rams will wrap up the home portion of its conference slate with a critical three-game series this weekend against Dayton (27-21, 11-6 A-10), with both teams competing for the regular season title. Saturday will feature a doubleheader and the series finale will take place on Sunday. Both days will begin at noon.
 
Saturday is also Senior Day in the Bronx. Join us in honoring the six-member senior class between games tomorrow. If you can't make it out to Bahoshy Field, the ceremony will be streamed live via the link above. Fans can follow along with all the action this weekend via the three links above.  
 
Last Time Out
The Rams picked up a series-opening win against George Washington last Saturday in what was originally scheduled to be a doubleheader but was moved back a day due to inclement weather. Lauren Quense got the start and picked up win number 17, allowing three runs on three hits over her first two frames but settling down thereafter to toss five perfect innings after that for the win and her 13^th complete game. The senior helped her own cause with two run-scoring walks with the bases loaded in the first and fifth innings, while A-10 Rookie of the Week Skylar Johnston's two-run single up the middle in the fourth provided the go-ahead runs. Ally Vergona and Lindsay Mayer also added RBI singles, A-10 Co-Player of the Week Sydney Canessa chipped in a sac fly and a solo home run, and Jessica Hughes also reached all five trips to the plate with a single, two doubles, and a pair of walks. Read about the win, here.
 
The Colonials evened the series up with a 5-1 win over Madison Aughinbaugh and the Rams in the opening game of Sunday's doubleheader behind an excellent pitching performance from Sarah Costlow, limiting Fordham to just an unearned run on four singles. The Rams did walk six times but couldn't do much with them, the lone run coming on a sac fly after runners had moved over a base from first and second on a passed ball. Fordham bounced back, however, in the series finale, with Quense and Taylor Stocks combining for a one-hitter in a shortened 12-0 win. The Rams scored four in the first against Faith Weber on two run-scoring singles and a bases loaded walk and added runs in the next three innings to force the run rule after five frames. Canessa, Hughes, and Chelsea Skrepenak all homered, with the first two scoring putting up nearly identical lines of 1-for-2 with two walks and three runs scored. Read about the doubleheader split, here.
 
Series History vs. Dayton
The Flyers own a 25-22 all-time advantage over the Rams since 1996, the year that Fordham joined the Atlantic 10. Dayton enjoyed nearly all of the success in the first six years, winning 15 of the first 16 contests in the series through the 2002 season, Bridget Orchard's first season in charge. Fordham rattled off doubleheader sweeps the following two seasons and split in 2005 before rattling off another five straight into the 2008 campaign. Things have been more even since then, with the Rams enjoyed more success from 2009 to 2013 but the Flyers have bounced back with six wins in nine total games since the start of the 2014 season, including two of three last year. However, Fordham got the win that counted most, winning dramatically in an elimination game against Dayton in last year's A-10 Championship, with Canessa walking off with a RBI double to center in the 12^th inning against last year's Pitcher of the Year, Manda Cash.
 
National/Conference Rankings
The Fordham softball team continues to hum along, compiling one of its best statistical seasons in school history. The offense has bumped its overall batting average to a program-record .314, ranked 19^th in the country, as well as its .414 on-base percentage and .481 slugging percentage, ranked first and third, respectively, in the program's history, and 13^th and 19^th, respectively, nationally. The Rams are the number eight team in the country in scoring, with 6.55 runs per contest, due to the aforementioned numbers, are fifth in walks (215), seventh in hits (418) plus have a terrific home run rate (0.88 – 40^t) and stolen base rate (1.67 – 35^th). Fordham's success in the circle has also been massive, ranked 31^st in the country with a 2.14 collective ERA. The Rams rank first in all of the above categories among Atlantic 10 teams.
 
Fordham is represented well at the individual level, too, with Madison Shaw's 59 RBI and 1.20 RBI rate ranked fifth and ninth, respectively, in Division I, while Jessica Hughes' .406 batting average sits at 65^th and her 0.91 walks per game ranks 13^th. The pair also rank 25^th and 30^th, respectively, with 106 and 103 total bases on the year. Sydney Canessa remains one of the toughest hitters in the country to strike out, with just seven in 154 at bats, good for once every 22.0 at bats, and does it against 30 walks, which ranks just outside the top-10 in a single season at Fordham.
 
Quense's 18 wins, a new personal-best, rank 29^th in the country and first in the league, and her 2.07 ERA ranks 107^th, just ahead of Madison Aughinbaugh's 2.19 mark (129^th). Taylor Stocks no longer has the requisite innings pitched but last week had been ranked 83^rd. Aughinbaugh has done a good job limiting walks allowed, at just 1.38 per game, which ranks 60^th in the country.
 
Fordham at 52nd in latest NCAA RPI
The Rams opened with an initial RPI ranking of 35^th several weeks ago but have since dropped 17 spots. Fordham remains the top team in the northeast according to the rankings, unless you count Pittsburgh, and are five spots ahead of Saint Francis (Pa.) and 16 ahead of Boston College.
 
Baylor, who the Rams defeated in the season opener, 1-0, is ranked ninth overall. The Rams have also defeated top-50 teams in Tulsa (30), Florida Atlantic (41), and Northwestern (50). You can check out the rankings here.
 
Canessa Breaking Records
The senior star centerfielder continues her climb up the all-time lists at Fordham and has just recently reached the summit of one of them, with 183 runs scored, passing Allison Twarowski's 181 last weekend. Canessa, who shares the record for runs in a game, with five, and holds the record for most times being hit by a pitch in a game, with three, also set a new school record with six hits at St. Bonaventure in the team's record-setting 23-run performance 10 days ago. Canessa singled five times, hit a grand slam, and drove in a total of eight runs, a new career-high and one shy of the program record set by Beckah Wiggins in 2010. Incredibly, the senior finds herself in the top-10 of 15 all-time batting lists and in the top-five of several of them.  
 
Shaw Drives 'Em In
Junior Madison Shaw has tallied 59 RBIs thus far through 49 games, ranked top-five in the country and already third-most all-time in a single season in program history, now just one back of Beckah Wiggins' best mark in 2010. Elise Fortier's 2014 tally of 73 remains tops. With the bases empty, Shaw bats a solid .380. However, with runners on, the Raynham, Mass. native bumps that up to .404 and with runners in scoring position, it remains at .393 after getting no opportunities against the Colonials last weekend. With the bases juiced, Shaw is 7-for-11 on the year (.636) and with a runner on third and less than two outs, Shaw has successfully driven in a teammate 17-of-20 times (.850).
 
Shaw is currently riding an 11-game hitting streak despite snapping a seven-game stretch of driving in at least one run, which helped her secure her third Player of the Week honor a week ago. The three games against GW last weekend were just the 21^st to 23^rd games this season, out of 49, in which Shaw hasn't driven in a teammate.
 
Leading Off
The Rams offense has been especially potent this season and a big part of that is leadoff hitters consistently reaching base. Jessica Hughes is one of the country's top leadoff hitters, batting .556 whenever leading off, although that's down from her absurd .632 average that she carried three weeks ago.  She's not the only one, as Sydney Canessa (.514), Lindsay Mayer (.441), Madison Shaw (.424), and Skylar Johnston (.375) all reach at an above average clip or better, as well as Van Hoven before her injury (.375). As a team, Fordham leadoff hitters have a .388 batting average (121-for-312) after going 10-for-17 last weekend.

Patience is a Virtue
The Rams are one of the most patient teams in the country, racking up  215 walks, fifth-most in the country, already, by far, the most in school history, and are still doing it more than they strikeout (194). The Rams are tied with SEC power Florida State and are just behind other national powers Auburn, Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama. Fordham's .414 on-base percentage as a whole ranks 13^th in the country and is the first time a Fordham team has reached the .400 mark. Jessica Hughes leads the way with 43 walks, tied for the most in a single season at Fordham, in 47 games played, after drawing an astounding 11 base-on-balls over the last two weeks. In fact, Hughes has drawn at least one walk in nine of the last 10 games.
 
Situational Stats
Other reasons for the Rams offense being so successful this year is driving in runners in scoring position. As a team, Fordham is batting .327 (168-for-514) with a runner on second, third, or both, and .364 (36-for-99) with the bases loaded. Also, with a runner on third and less than two outs, the Rams bat a blistering .578 (93-for-161).
 
Meanwhile, the pitchers hold opponents to an overall .229 average. Leadoff hitters do reach base at an above-average pace (.321) but the Rams are limiting opponents after that to just .225 with runners on.
 
Quense Tosses 14^th No-Hitter in Program History
The senior hurler was lights out against Bryant on Sunday, February 19, tossing six innings of no-hit ball, allowing just a fourth-inning walk, plus a batter that reached on an error later in the contest, with three strikeouts. Quense became the fifth Ram to ever throw a no-hitter in program history. 
 
Keeping up with the Record Book
As has been mentioned several times already, several records have been broken this year and it is absolutely within the realm of possibility that a few more will fall before season's end. This extremely talented group of Rams continue their trek up the all-time ranks.
 
You can check it all out, here.
 
Fordham Softball Archived Stories
It's been a busy season, with 18 weekly A-10 awards, a no-hitter, three new school records, matching two others, and a 36-13 record as we approach May. You can read all of the team's archived stories from this season and beyond, here.
 
Fordham Quick Facts
You can find this season's full schedule, roster, and quick facts, plus last year's season statistics, all here.
 
Fordham Picked to Successfully Defend A-10 Title
The Rams received nine of 10 first-place votes in the preseason coaches' poll, it was announced last week. Fordham has won four straight conference tournament titles and five of the last six, plus three regular season championships in the past six years, as well.
 
The Rams return all eight position player starters, losing only starting pitcher/DP Rachel Gillen. Second Teamer Lauren Quense returns for her senior campaign to anchor a staff that will include three freshmen. The Rams have six newcomers, five freshmen and one sophomore transfer, and will have one more underclassmen this season than upperclassmen.
 
Welcoming New Faces
The program welcomed six new players to the Bronx this season: pitchers Madison Aughinbaugh, Taylor Stocks, and Stephanie Rundlett, infielders Skylar Johnston and Brielle Cerchio, and outfielder Deanna Burbridge. You can read about the first four signing their NLIs last winter here. Aughinbaugh and Rundlett were named their respective states' Players of the Year. Head coach Bridget Orchard has also announced five recruits for the class of 2021 that have recently signed their NLIs.
 
Up Next
The Rams host St. John's on Wednesday, May 3, at 2:30 p.m. in the season home finale. Fordham will then travel to La Salle for next weekend's regular season finale with a three-game set in Philadelphia.