Softball Heads to George Washington For Three-Game Series

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Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham softball team (9-10, 1-1) will take a three-game win streak into this weekend's highly anticipated three-game series at George Washington (10-10, 3-0). Saturday's doubleheader will begin at 1 p.m. while Sunday's finale, which will be streamed on ESPN+, will start at noon.
 
Last Time Out
Fordham swept Stony Brook in a midweek doubleheader, outscoring the Seawolves, 9-0, over the final 10 innings. Freshman Emilee Watkins made her second career start and did well, limiting her opposition to two runs over 4.1 innings with three strikeouts. Devon Miller came on in relief and began the aforementioned stretch of keeping Stony Brook off the scoreboard the rest of the day, picking up her second win of the year with 2.2 two-hit frames. Bailey Enoch and Makenzie McGrath combined for a shutout in game two, the former striking out a career-high seven batters and earning her third win of the campaign. At the dish, Rachel Hubertus and Julia Martine each had an emphatic home run, the former tying the game up, 2-2, and the latter adding an exclamation mark on the day with a three-run shot late in game two. Mary Grace O'Neill scored her first career run as a pinch runner for Hubertus in the sixth inning of game one, putting the Rams ahead by stealing second base and scoring after a throwing error by the catcher. Read all about the doubleheader here.
 
Series History vs. George Washington
Fordham leads the all-time series with the Colonials, 33-5, since the latter joined the Atlantic 10 in 2003. The rivalry has gotten much closer in the last few seasons with the Rams holding a slim 3-2 advantage since the start of the 2019 campaign, with Fordham defeating the Colonials, 5-2, in the Atlantic 10 Championship and advancing to the NCAA Regionals, but GW got revenge with an 8-1 win last year en route to winning the conference tournament. Fordham is 15-2 in our nation's capital.
 
Milestone Watch
Fittingly, Brianna Pinto is racing up the Fordham softball record book, now up to solo second all-time with 71 career steals, just two away from tying Krystle Henry ('07) for the program record. Pinto stole 28 bases last year, third-most in a single campaign, and has been thrown out just ONCE in her career, way back in April of her freshman year. The Franklin Square, N.Y. native also has a chance to finish in the top-10 for career batting average after setting the single-season record last Spring with a .431 average across 46 contests, currently at .246 this year.
 
Redshirt senior Rachel Hubertus enjoyed a tremendous comeback season last year, hitting 13 home runs with 54 RBIs, ranked T-10^th and 5^th, respectively in a single year, and with six home runs already this year is now into the top-10 for career bombs, with 28. She is also 23 RBIs away from the all-time top-10 and is currently sixth with a career .588 slugging percentage.
 
Junior Devon Miller is up to joint-eighth all-time with seven career shutouts and just entered the top-10 for career strikeouts, now 10^th with 247. She is also just three wins from that top-10, as well.   
 
Makenzie McGrath Named Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week
The senior earned her first weekly league accolade on February 15 after picking up both of the team's wins opening weekend, one in her fifth career complete game and one in relief. Read all about her stellar performances here.
 
2021 Season Review
The Rams saw a stretch of seven consecutive Atlantic 10 championships snapped last Spring. Fordham earned the #2 seed after finishing the conference season with a 17-3 record, posting a 37-10 overall record by year's end. Devon Miller became the eighth Ram to earn A-10 Rookie of the Year honors, also garnering First Team All-Conference accolades, with Sarah Taffet and Brianna Pinto being named to the Second Team and Bella Ayala and Bailey Enoch landing on the All-Rookie team. The quartet of Miller, Pinto, Madie Aughinbaugh, and Rachel Hubertus all were also selected to the NFCA All-Region Third Team, as well.
 
In the classroom, a program-record 13 Rams also earned Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete honors, with Aughinbaugh also garnering A-10 All-Academic and both Hubertus and Pinto earning CoSIDA Academic All-District.
 
Fordham saw Aughinbaugh, one of the program's top pitchers and two-way players, graduate among five total, but return every other starter from a year ago, with five freshman joining the program. Coach Inouye, who received a contract extension, also added former Holy Cross head coach Jennifer Lapicki as her associate head coach.
 
2022 Season Preview
Head coach Melissa Inouye, entering her fourth season at the helm of the program, and the team's four captains – fifth-years Kelly Bright, Rachel Hubertus, and Brianna Pinto, and senior Makenzie McGrath recapped the team's preseason preparations and spoke on their team goals for the year, plus more, in this video.
 
A-10 Preseason Poll
The Rams were predicted to finish second in the annual Atlantic 10 preseason coaches poll. Fordham garnered 71 points and three first-place votes, finishing just three points shy of last year's champions, George Washington, who received four first-place votes, and ahead of Saint Joseph's, who earned the final two first-place votes and 55 total points. Read about it here.
 
D1Softball.com's Top 150
Junior pitcher and reigning Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year Devon Miller was named by D1Softball.com as its 149^th-best player in the country heading into the season. You can read about it here, though it is a subscription-based website.
 
Up Next
Fordham returns home to host Lehigh for two games next Wednesday starting at 2 p.m. and then hosts Rhode Island next weekend for a three-game series.