Clearwater, Fla. – Fordham softball secured its first win of the 2023 season during a wild Saturday split on day two of the NFCA Leadoff Classic. The Rams walked off, 2-1, against Prairie View A&M, but fell in nine innings, 6-4, to Illinois right after. Fordham is now 1-3 through four games.
Freshman
Holly Beeman received her first career start against the Panthers and turned in her a tremendous performance, allowing just two walks through six frames. A lead-off single ended her bid for a debut no-hitter and the run would come around to score on a pair of errors later in the inning, tying the contest at 1-1 in the top of the seventh. Earlier in the game, sophomore catcher
Sydney Wells had blasted a solo home run to put the Rams on the board. In the bottom half of the frame,
Bella Ayala and
Mallory McClellan went back-to-back with singles,
Neleh Nogay bunted them over, and
Michaela Carter provided a two-out walk-off infield single to secure the team's first victory.
In game two, sophomore
Emilee Watkins received her first start and, like Beeman, held her opponent off the board through five innings. Up to that point, Fordham had gone ahead on a first-inning two-out RBI single up the middle by Wells to score Nogay. Illinois knotted the contest up with a RBI groundout in the fifth, but the Rams went ahead again in the sixth on
Julia Martine's 20
th career home run, a lead-off blast. Looking for her first career complete game, Watkins came out for the seventh, but two errors led to a runner on third and one out.
Bailey Enoch replaced Watkins in the circle and her first pitch was wild, allowing the runner to score and tie the contest. The junior rebounded and escaped further damage.
International extra-inning rules are in play this weekend so each team put a runner on second to begin each extra frame. Illinois plated two runs in the top of the eighth on a two-run single, but Martine came up huge again with a two-run no-doubt shot to left center with two outs in the bottom half of the inning, scoring
Eva Koratsis, as well. The celebrations were short-lived, however, as the Illini responded with a two-out, two-run home run of their own that proved to be the difference.
Fordham wraps up the Leadoff Classic tomorrow against Pittsburgh at 10 a.m.
