Tuscaloosa, Ala. – For the second straight day, the Fordham softball team got on the board first against #13 Alabama but, again, were unable to hold its lead as the Crimson Tide took Saturday's rematch, 7-2. The Rams bounced back, though, by defeating Samford by the same score for a second day in a row, 4-1. With the day's results, Fordham moves to 6-13 on the year.
Against 2017 First Team All-American Alexis Osorio,
Madi Shaw blasted a two-out, two-run home run, her third of the season, to put Fordham up, 2-0, early. The hosts clawed one back, though, in the bottom of the inning with a pair of singles to start the frame, a sac bunt, and a sac fly. Alabama went ahead for good in the third on a Bailey Hemphill two-run shot and the Crimson Tide added four more in the fourth against
Paige Rauch, who came on in relief of
Madie Aughinbaugh.
Anne Marie Prentiss finished out the frame, allowing a single that drove in the final run, but was tossed two perfect innings after that.
Brianna Pinto tallied the Rams' other hit, a single, as Rauch and
Lauren Quense each walked once. Osorio set a school record and tied a NCAA record with 21 strikeouts on the day.
Fordham bounced back with a second straight 4-1 win over Samford despite an hour-plus long weather delay. Quense got the start and picked up her first win of the season, allowing the Bulldogs' lone run on four hits and two walks over five innings, while striking out three. Rauch notched career save number one with two scoreless innings in relief.
The Rams scored in the first on a Quense bases-loaded walk and added the go-ahead run on a RBI groundout by Shaw to plate
Chelsea Skrepenak, who had led off the third with a double. Skrepenak saw a team-leading eight-game hitting streak snapped a few hours earlier. The final two runs crossed home in the sixth after the delay; Aughinbaugh stroked a doubled to left with one out and moved to third on a
Kylie Michael single before Rauch drove them both in with a single to right.
The Rams will wrap up the Crimson Classic against Boston College tomorrow at 12 p.m. Stay tuned to @FordhamSoftball on Twitter for information on changes and/or delays due to poor weather.
