Orlando, Fla. – The Fordham softball team split a pair of contests on Friday on the opening day of the Diamond 9 Citrus Classic, held at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. The Rams defeated Morgan State, 8-6, before falling to Iowa, 5-3. With the results, Fordham moves to 5-6 on the season.
After three scoreless frames, the Fordham offense plated four runs in both the fourth and seventh innings before the Bears briefly rallied late. RBI singles by
Maria Trivelpiece and
Anne Marie Prentiss, plus a two-run
Chelsea Skrepenak no-doubt home run put Fordham ahead, 4-0, before Morgan State scored twice in the sixth on a RBI double and on an error. The Rams loaded the bases to start the seventh frame and
Jordy Storm drove in the first two runs with a single to right, which preceded a
Rachel Hubertus RBI single and a Trivelpiece sacrifice fly.
Prentiss, who had only allowed one earned run up to that point, allowed three more to score, and
Gianna Ranieri allowed one in relief, before
Madie Aughinbaugh picked up her first save of the year by getting the final out with two runners on. Prentiss earned her second victory with 6.1 frames of five-run ball, four earned, with a walk and three strikeouts.
After a first-inning RBI single, Aughinbaugh cruised through her next five frames before the Hawkeyes got to the junior with a four-spot in the seventh to take game two. Iowa loaded the bases with nobody out on a trio of singles before all three runners cored on a double.
Fordham had taken an earlier 2-1 lead in the third on a
Molly Roark sac fly and an error, and then adding a third on an Aughinbaugh two-out RBI single to score Skrepenak.
Skrepenak enjoyed a terrific day at the plate, going 5-of-8 with a home run, four runs scored, and two RBI.
Deanna Burbridge, with three hits, Aughinbaugh, Storm, and Trivelpiece all tallied multi-hit days, as well. Hubertus saw a nine-game hitting streak snapped in game two.
The Rams are back in action tomorrow against RV/RV Notre Dame at noon and a rematch with Iowa at 5 p.m. All games can be seen on FloSoftball.com.
