Softball Clinches First-Round Bye with Saturday Split with Rhode Island

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham softball team clinched a first-round bye at next week's Atlantic 10 Championship with Saturday's doubleheader split against Rhode Island. With the results, the Rams move to 26-22 overall on the year and 16-6 in league action, while Rhody moves to 17-29 and 6-14, respectively.
 
Rhode Island edged Fordham, 1-0, in a game one pitchers duel between Madie Aughinbaugh and Becca Rogers. The duo each went the distance but the visiting Rams pushed across one unearned run in the seventh, which proved to be enough. Fordham loaded the bases in the bottom half with two outs but Rogers was able to induce Molly Roark into a groundout after a lengthy at-bat. Rogers allowed just five hits and one walk, with four strikeouts, but hit three batters, including both Chelsea Skrepenak and Jordy Storm with two outs and Sarah Taffet on first in the seventh inning. Aughinbaugh struck out a season-high 10 batters, one shy of her career-high, and allowed the one unearned run on seven h its and no walks. It's just the junior's second conference loss in 15 starts.
 
Game two started much the same way with two perfect frames for both starters – Makenzie McGrath and Sarah Gunderson, but Julia Martine got the scoring started, what would be 13 total runs in an 8-5 win for the hosts, with a mammoth solo shot to left, her second round-tripper of the year. Rhode Island answered right away with a run in the top of the fourth on a Susan Harrison sac fly. McGrath worked out of further trouble in the fifth after two walks thanks to some help from Kylie Michael, who picked Gunderson off first base, and inducing a foul out from Alex Pleasic to end the threat.
 
Fordham's bats woke up in the bottom half of the inning for five runs on six hits and a pair of errors. Martine led off with a bunt single and Taffet sacrificed her over. Deanna Burbridge singled to put runners on the corners and Martine scored on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze play by Skrepenak. Storm singled to shallow left to load the bases and Roark powered a two-run single through the right side to give her team a three-run cushion and knock Gunderson out of the game, shifting her back to centerfield. Against Julia Waraksy, Aughinbaugh plated another run on an RBI single up the middle and a throwing error trying to get Roark out at home by Erica Robles proved to be the eventual game winner.
 
Again, Rhody struck back, this time for three runs with a big bases-clearing double by Gunderson to get the visitors within two, 6-4. McGrath was able to regroup and got a fly out from Erika Yeager. Fordham added two more insurance runs in the sixth on a Storm RBI infield single to deep shortstop, which knocked Waraksy out and brought Gunderson back in to the circle, and a booming double off the top of the wall in left center that scored Skrepenak, although Storm was thrown out at home. The visitors clawed one more run back on an Ari Castillo solo home run but McGrath closed out her fourth complete game to secure her 10^th win on the year.
 
Aughinbaugh led the way at the plate for Fordham, reaching base four times overall with two singles and a walk in game one in three trips to the plate and a third single in game two. Five different Rams notched a pair of hits in game two – Burbridge, Martine, Roark, Skrepenak, and Storm, with Burbridge, Martine, and Skrepenak scoring twice apiece. Roark led the way with three RBIs. McGrath struck out four.
 
The Rams will play tomorrow with a chance to clinch their sixth A-10 regular season title in the series finale. Due to forecasted inclement weather, first pitch as already been pushed back to 2 p.m.