Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham softball rallied to tie Wednesday's nonconference meeting with Iona, but the Rams eventually fell to their nearby rivals, 5-4, in eight innings. With the loss, Fordham falls to 12-14 overall, while the Gaels improve to 8-13.
Iona struck for two runs in the tops of the first and third innings against freshman
Emilee Watkins, with Fordham responding in both bottom frames with one run apiece, first on a long
Bailey Enoch foulout with the bases loaded and later on a mammoth
Rachel Hubertus solo home run. The Rams kept chipping away at Gaels starter Kara Zazzaro and finally knotted the contest up in the fifth. Huberus led off with a single and was pinch-ran for by
Gigi Speer. Moments later,
Julia Martine powered her sixth round-tripper of the season out to left center to even the contest up at 4-4.
Sophomore
Bailey Enoch bested her previous career-high of seven strikeouts by one, which came in a seven-inning start, but suffered the tough-luck loss due to the eighth inning error by
Brianna Pinto to allow Kyla Haywood to score from first on Brianna Bailey's two-out double. Pinto singled with one out in the bottom of the eighth and stole second but was left stranded as Zazzaro set down
Allie Clark and Hubertus in order to end the game.
Hubertus led the way by batting 3-for-5, while Martine reached base safely three times, as well, with a single and a walk to go with the home run. Pinto notched two hits, as well, while Clark, Enoch,
Sarah Taffet,
Bella Ayala, and
Kelly Bright all reached safely once. Enoch came on in relief of Watkins, who struck out two over three frames, to strike out eight over five innings, suffering her third loss of the year. Zazzaro struck out 12 Rams but allowed 14 baserunners, including 11 hits.
Fordham returns to action on the road this weekend at Atlantic 10 rival Massachusetts for a three-game series. Both Saturday's doubleheader and Sunday's finale are set to begin at noon.
