Bronx, N.Y. – Sunday's series finale was successful on multiple levels for Fordham softball, starting with an 8-1 victory and including a new program record as fifth-year
Brianna Pinto stole her 74
th career base to become the Rams' all-time steals leader. Meanwhile, redshirt senior
Rachel Hubertus reached both the 30-home run and 100-RBI plateaus, as well, the former moving her into solo eighth all-time. With the win, Fordham improves to 12-13 overall and 4-4 in Atlantic 10 play, while Rhode Island falls to 5-19 and 1-7, respectively.
"First, a big congrats to Bebe on breaking the program record for stolen bases! Really happy that offensively we did a great job getting our leadoff hitter on base every inning today." Head coach
Melissa Inouye said, "We stayed disciplined at the plate and enjoyed seeing our hitters hit the ball hard all over the field with power. That's a credit to our game preparation a few days ago and players committing to adjustments. Kudos to the outfielders as they handled a lot of fly-balls on a windy day. Devon was sharper today with her spin and movement and Amanda did a good job calling the majority of the pitches."
Fittingly, it took next to no time at all for Pinto to reach the milestone, taking the third pitch she saw and beating out an infield single and then stealing second base moments later. Perhaps more impressively, Pinto scored from second on a rare RBI foul-out deep down the right field line, with Hubertus the hitter. The Rams scored in all but one inning and doubled their lead in the second on a
Sarah Taffet double to right center to score
Devon Miller, who led the frame off with a single, one of her career-high four hits on the day. Hubertus led off the third inning with a towering solo home run deep into the tennis courts beyond left-centerfield. Later in the frame with two outs,
Amanda Carey came through with her first home run of the year, scoring Miller, to make it a five-run game. Rhode Island would answer with its first hit of the game off Miller, an Ali Castillo solo shot, in the top of the fourth.
The remaining runs came in the fifth, on a two-out error to score
Michaela Carter from third, and two in the sixth on Miller's two-run double, scoring
Julia Martine and
Mallory McClellan, the latter pinch-running for Hubertus.
Miller picked up her fourth win of the year while allowing just two hits with no walks and eight strikeouts. At the dish, it was Miller to lead the way by going 4-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs, while Pinto tallied a trio of singles over four at-bats. Hubertus went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and six other Rams reached base safely once.
Fordham remains at home to host Iona on Wednesday, March 30, at 3 p.m.
