Olean, N.Y. – Fordham softball swept Saturday's doubleheader at St. Bonaventure, 2-1 in game one and 13-2 in game two, to extend its current win streak to five. With the victory, the Rams improve to 25-18 overall and 13-6 in league action, while the Bonnies fall to 8-37 and 1-22, respectively.
St. Bonaventure's Emily Phelan kept the Fordham bats silent for much of game one after her offense staked her to an early 1-0 lead, the run scoring on a RBI groundout by Grace Perechinsky in the opening frame. The Rams notched one hit in four of the first five innings as
Devon Miller shut down the Bonnies to maintain that early scoreline. Fordham broke through in the sixth through a two-run
Bailey Enoch triple, a rocket off the base of the right centerfield wall to score
Julia Martine, who had singled, and
Mallory McClellan, who was running for
Rachel Hubertus, who had singled. All three hits came with two outs.
The two teams traded 1-2-3 innings before Miller worked around a two-out single in the seventh to earn her ninth win of the year. Miller struck out eight batters on the afternoon while allowing five hits and a pair of walks.
Game two was Fordham's highest scoring game of the year and first double-digit output. The offensive fireworks began with a big two-out rally in the first.
Michaela Carter led off with a single and eventually the bases became loaded through walks to
Bailey Enoch and
Sydney Wells. Starter Tierney Fitzgerald was replaced by Elizabeth Lis and the latter gave up three straight singles to
Allie Clark,
Kelly Bright, and
Mary Grace O'Neill to bring in three runs.
The Bonnies struck back for a pair of runs in the second to cut the deficit to one, first through a lead-off Perechinsky home run and later a fielder's choice. Fordham starter
Makenzie McGrath was locked in after that, though, allowing just two walks and no hits over the final five frames and finishing with four strikeouts.
Fordham responded immediately with two runs in response on a
Sarah Taffet RBI single and a Carter sac fly. Hubertus smashed a solo home run to right center in the fourth, her 16
th of the year and 38
th of her career, the former tied for second-most in a single campaign with four others. Two more runs came across in the frame, first on a Bright single the opposite way and then an O'Neill sac fly. The Rams added one more in the fifth, Carter scoring on a wild pitch, before a big seventh that saw
Julia Petrovich's second career home run, a lead-off solo shot as a pinch hitter, and
Sydney Wells' first career dinger, a three-run moonshot to right center that scored Enoch and Carter.
Carter led the offense on the day with a whopping five hits, including a triple, sharing the co-lead with Wells and Enoch with three runs apiece between the two games. Wells finished game two 3-for-4 at the plate, with Bright going 2-for-3 with a run. Enoch reached base safely four times with two hits and two walks.
The Rams and Bonnies will cap the series on Sunday at noon.
