Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham softball team returned to Bahoshy Field after two months and 30 games on the road to host Dayton on Saturday for a home-opening Atlantic 10 doubleheader. The Rams took game one, 5-1, before falling, 13-6, in game two. Fordham moves to 12-20 overall and 5-3 in league play, while the Flyers move to 18-17 and 6-2, respectively.
"In game one, we did a good job scoring first and giving ourselves the lead by swinging at good pitches, especially Jordy and Rachel with their home runs," Head coach
Melissa Inouye said, "Overall, Aughie and the defense did a good job keeping them off the bases. In game two, we dug ourselves in a hole early but battled back each inning to get within two. Unfortunately, in the sixth and seventh we gave them too many extra at-bats and they capitalized on our mistakes. We need to do a better job playing together defensively and not giving teams extra outs to play with."
In front of a large home crowd on Rose Hill, the Rams stormed out to a five-run lead after two innings and never looked back, assisted by another stellar performance from junior
Madie Aughinbaugh in the circle.
Chelsea Skrepenak led off the home half of the first by beating out an infield single then came around to score with two outs on
Maria Trivelpiece's RBI single to right to start the scoring. Fordham plated four in the second as
Sarah Taffet led off with a booming triple to straightaway center and scored on another Skrepenak infield single.
Jordy Storm followed with her fifth home run of the campaign and, two batters later,
Rachel Hubertus smashed her eighth of the year, a solo shot, to put the hosts up five.
Aughinbaugh worked around trouble on several occasions and hurrying towards her 12
th career shutout until Alyssa Cacini took her deep to lead off the seventh. The junior rebounded by getting three straight outs after an error in the field. The junior picked up her seventh win on the year with just the one run allowed on six hits and one walk, with three strikeouts. Aughinbaugh moved out of a tie with
Chelsea Plimpton for seventh all-time with 41 wins and with
Lauren Quense for fifth with 38 complete games.
Trivelpiece finished game one with a career-high four hits in four trips to the plate, while Skrepenak and Storm each notched a pair of hits, the former also walking.
Molly Roark walked three times, as well.
The Rams pitchers in game two struggled with their command, totaling nine walks to three strikeouts over seven frames. Trivelpiece made her second career start and allowed four runs on a hit and five walks, getting saddled with the loss, while
Gigi Speer made her collegiate pitching debut with two frames of two-run ball, before
Makenzie McGrath closed out the game for 4.1 innings.
Dayton led, 6-0, after the top of the third, although the Rams got within three on two occasions and two once. They struck first in the bottom of the third with a two-run single off the bat of Aughinbaugh, scoring Skrepenak and
Deanna Burbridge, before Roark obliterated a ball to left center for her 10
th round-tripper of the year to lead off the fourth. Fordham loaded the bases in the fifth with two outs and
Kylie Michael's grounder was misplayed by Julia Blarr, allowing Storm to score to make it 6-4 in favor of the visitors. The Flyers responded, however, with three runs in the sixth, the first on an Abby Ehrenborg RBI single proving to be the difference in the contest.
Fordham made things interesting in the seventh by putting the first two runners on; Trivelpiece singled up the middle and Roark and Taffet walked to load the bases with one out. Burbridge fouled out to first but Skrepenak pushed a single into left center to score two before Storm's hard-hit grounder was fielded at first for the final out.
Aughinbaugh, Skrepenak, and Trivelpiece all tallied two hits apiece, while Roark walked three more times in addition to her home run. Trivelpiece finished the day 6-for-8 at the plate to pace the offense, while Skrepenak went 4-for-8 and Roark netted six walks while going 1-for-2 at the plate. The trio combined to reach base 17 times on the day.
The Rams and Flyers will decide their series tomorrow at noon.
