Bronx, N.Y. – After a week of untimely inclement weather, Fordham softball was finally able to begin play on its home turf, Bahoshy Field, on Monday afternoon, simultaneously kicking Atlantic 10 play off against visiting Saint Louis. The Billikens took game one in nine innings, 9-4, before the Rams rallied for a 5-3 victory in game two. With the results, Fordham moves to 7-10 overall and 1-1 in league action, while Saint Louis moved to 5-12 and 1-1, respectively.
It was
Rachel Hubertus to begin the day and end it, starting game one with a sac fly to open the scoring and powering a two-run home run to break open a 3-3 deadlock in game two. Saint Louis took a 2-1 lead in the third inning of game one and a 3-2 lead in the eighth while Fordham rallied both times to even the contest. In sixth,
Michaela Carter reached on a dropped fly ball that scored
Bailey Enoch and in the eighth,
Kelly Bright ripped a base knock to center with two outs and the bases loaded, scoring Carter, but
Bella Ayala was just thrown out at the plate looking to score the winning run. In the ninth, starter
Devon Miller eclipsed 130 pitches and walked her first batter before giving way to Enoch, who allowed five runs to the Billikens. Hubertus salvaged a run in the bottom half of the frame with a two-out, first-pitch solo shot to center. Miller finished the contest with 10 strikeouts over 8.1 frames, allowed four runs, two earned, with just seven baserunners, but was saddled with the loss.
In game two, Saint Louis started out hot through Krysti Stevenson's lead-off solo home run off
Makenzie McGrath, later doubling the lead with a RBI single in the third. The Billikens led, 3-0, after the top half of the third but McGrath would settle in the rest of the way en route to her seventh career complete game, third this season, while matching her career-high with six strikeouts. The Rams used some small ball in the third to get on the scoreboard, with
Allie Clark bringing
Brianna Pinto home via a groundout after the fifth-year had singled, stolen second, and moved to third on a wild pitch.
After several scoreless frames, the Rams struck emphatically with a four-run sixth inning.
Sydney Wells led off with a double down the right field line and scored on
Sarah Taffet's first home run of the season to knot the game up, 3-3. Two outs followed but Clark kept things alive with a single to center, which allowed Hubertus to step up and blast to the go-ahead runs into the left-centerfield netting of the tennis courts. Saint Louis put runners on the corners with two outs in the seventh but McGrath induced a groundout by clean-up hitter Allie Herron to see things out.
Hubertus went 2-for-3 in both contests, finishing the day 4-for-6 with a pair of home runs, three RBIs, two runs, and two walks. Clark went 3-for-8 with a RBI and run, while Pinto finished 2-for-8 with a pair of runs and stolen bases. Pinto is now just two stolen bases shy of tying Krystle Henry's ('07) program record of 73.
Fordham returns to action in short order, welcoming Stony Brook on Wednesday for a nonconference doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m.
