Softball Sweeps St. Bonaventure on Wednesday

Game One Photo Gallery | Highlights
 
Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham softball team racked up its eighth and ninth wins in a row with a midweek doubleheader sweep on Wednesday over Atlantic 10 foe St. Bonaventure, 8-0 in six innings and 4-1 in game two. With the wins, the Rams improve to 24-17 on the year and 12-1 in league action, while the Bonnies fall to 8-26 and 1-12, respectively.
 
Sophomore Madie Aughinbuagh notched her second consecutive shutout, third in her last five starts, and sixth on the year in game one, which is already tied for fifth-most in a single campaign in program history. The Port Tobacco, Md. native allowed just five hits, two for extra bases, but worked around any trouble and walked none, while punching out six, to improve to 11-6 on the year and lower her ERA to 2.78.
 
The Rams offense started off slowly, scoring one run apiece in the first, on a fielding error, and in the second, on a groundout, but plated three in the fourth, two in the fifth, and walked off on another fielding error with the bases loaded in the sixth. In the fourth frame, the Rams loaded the bases with nobody out. Lauren Quense walked, Brianna Pinto singled, and Kylie Michael walked, as well. Deanna Burbridge walked in a run and Pinto scored on a wild pitch. The top of the order made all three outs, though, with one more run coming on a Chelsea Skrepenak groundout. Quense doubled in Madi Shaw in the fifth, who smartly took second on a long fly out in foul territory down the left field line, and Michael singled Quense in. Fordham loaded the bases again on Johnston and Shaw singles and a Quense walk with two outs and Molly Roark's grounder was booted by the second baseman.
 
After striking out the side in the first inning of game two, Paige Rauch allowed an unearned run in the second as a single and two groundouts followed to plate the run. The freshman was fine otherwise, allowing a total of four hits and three walks while setting a new season-high with eight strikeouts, also matching the team's single-game high this year, set by Quense against Bryant in February.
 
The Rams deficit did not last long as Johnston launched a two-run go-ahead blast to dead center in the bottom of the third. The sophomore would be the second of two consecutive home runs with Skrepenak in the fifth to add insurance runs.
 
Johnston finished the day 4-for-6 with a team-high four runs, two bombs, and three runs driven in. Michael was next with three singles in five at bats, driving in two, and six others notched at least one run scored. In total, nine different Rams reached base.
 
In conference games this year, Aughinbaugh and Rauch have been near perfect in the circle. The duo holds 0.62 and 0.68 ERAs, respectively, and have combined for a 12-0 record with eight complete games and six shutouts.
 
The Rams travel to Saint Louis this weekend for a three-game series, the team's final road conference contests of the regular season. Both Saturday's doubleheader and Sunday's series finale will begin at 1 p.m. EST.