Amherst, Mass. – Head coach
Melissa Inouye's 200
th career victory came in style as Fordham softball capped off a three-game sweep of UMass on Sunday with a 6-1 win. With the win, the Rams improve to 15-14 overall and 7-4 in Atlantic 10 play, while the Minutewomen fall to 10-20 and 3-5, respectively.
"We were a little slow to start offensively, but once we got out lead-off hitter on we did a good job executing and scored those three runs in the third inning." Inouye said, "Good swings for home-run power by Rachel and Amanda. I thought defensively we had really good first-step reads on some flyballs and made some plays, especially the outfield. Nice adjustments by Devon and using all her pitches."
The hosts struck first in the opening frame, starting with two singles and then on an error by starter
Devon Miller on a sacrifice bunt attempt that led to the game's first run. Miller rebounded in a big way, however, by inducing three straight outs, including two swinging strikeouts, and kept the Minutewomen off the board the rest of the way to pick up her fifth win of the year, striking out five.
The Fordham bats came alive in the third.
Amanda Carey led off with a single up the middle and was pinch run for by
Gigi Speer.
Sarah Taffet bunted her over to second and
Brianna Pinto's single put runners on the corners.
Allie Clark tied the game up with a sacrifice fly before
Rachel Hubertus stepped up and smacked her league-leading 12
th home run of the season, also her third of the weekend, to plate the game-winning run. In the very next inning, the Rams again struck with a two-out home run, this time off the bat of Carey, scoring Miller. The offense added a sixth and final run in the seventh on another sac fly, this off the bat of
Julia Martine to score Pinto, who had led the frame off with a double.
Pinto finished the day 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored, while Carey, Hubertus, and
Bailey Enoch all reached safely twice. Over the course of the weekend, Pinto, Enoch, and Hubertus all racked up five hits, the latter two hitting three homers apiece.
Fordham is back in action on Wednesday with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
