Tampa, Fla. - The Fordham softball team's slow start to the 2018 campaign continued on Friday as the Rams opened up the USF Tournament with a pair of losses, first to Bryant, 5-3, and then to the Bulls, 7-4. With the losses, the Rams fall to 0-7 on the season.
Fordham got on the board first against the Bulldogs, plating the tournament's first run with a RBI walk by freshman
Kelly Bright, her first run driven in of her career. Sarah McKeveny walked her first three batters of the game,
Madie Aughinbaugh,
Paige Rauch, and Skyler Johnston. Bright's walk came with two outs after
Madi Shaw had popped up and
Rachel Hubertus struck out.
Molly Roark struck out swinging to end the threat. The Bulldogs tied the game up in the top half of the fourth with a Tiffany Bell RBI single but the Rams responded to retake the lead in the bottom half when
Lauren Quense scored from third on an error. Quense held Bryant in check until the seventh frame when she allowed three runs on three hits, one walk, and one error. Two runs scored on the error by Hubertus, the latter proving to be the game winner. The Rams had a brief one-out rally in the bottom half of the inning when Rauch tripled in Aughinbaugh from first, but Johnston and Shaw left her stranded.
Quense went the distance for a second straight game, allowing five runs, two earned, on seven hits, seven walks, and eight strikeouts.Â
The Rams again got off to a good start in game two as Rauch launched a two-run home run but South Florida answered in the second and then plated three more in the third, the last run serving as the go-ahead run. USF started the second frame off with three straight singles, had the first score on a wild pitch and the second on a sac fly, as Aughinbaugh limited the damage. The Bulls plated all three runs in the third with two outs, as Samantha Worrell hit her own two-run bomb, which was preceded by a solo blast from Cassidy Boyle. Johnston struck back with a two-run jack to left after Rauch led off the fourth with a single as Fordham got within one, but they couldn't overtake the hosts. USF added one run apiece in the fourth and fifth innings.
Aughinbaugh allowed seven earned runs on 11 hits, one walk, and one strikeout, over five innings before giving way to
Anne Marie Prentiss, who allowed one hit but nothing else in a clean inning.Â
Fordham returns to action tomorrow morning to play Drake at 9:15 a.m. The Rams' second opponent will be figured out depending on other results.
