HARRISONBURG, VA. - Hitting the road for their fourth and final tournament of the regular season, Fordham University softball heads to James Madison for five games at the Lakeside Book Company Tournament.
The Rams open action with a pair of games Friday, beginning at 11:00 a.m. when they take on New York rival Binghamton, before battling Radford that night at 6:30 p.m. Saturday sees a pair of back-to-back afternoon games against JMU and Raford again at 4:00 and 6:30 p.m. before wrapping with one more game against Binghamton Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m.
Saturday's game against James Madison will be available to watch live on ESPN+ while all five games will have live stats available via StatBroadcast.
Fordham (7-8) opened the year with three straight weekends on the road, including two trips to South Carolina and one to Texas, to complete the first 14 games of the year amidst a 51-game schedule this season. The Maroon and White had last weekend off before returning to action with the first of six games this week, after defeating Iona, 10-2 Wednesday afternoon in New Rochelle.
Leading the Herd
As a team Fordham sits 45th in the nation in fielding percentage at .972, and 71st in hit by pitches, both second in the A-10. The Rams pitching staff also boasts the second best ERA in the league at 3.24, led by Holly Beeman who has won each of her last three starts, claiming back-to-back A-10 Pitcher of the Week awards in the second and third week of the year.
Beeman holds a 4-2 record on the year with a 1.28 ERA, the best in the A-10, giving up just eight earned runs in 43.2 innings pitched, tossing six complete games in as many appearances, and is one of only two pitchers in the conference with multiple shutouts on the year.
Neleh Nogay scattered 17 hits through her first 50 at bats, scoring six runs while hitting .340 on the year, all team highs. Sydney Wells sits second on the team with 10 hits, ahead of both Mallory McClellan and Eva Koratsis with nine apiece, and both Erin Hoppe and Mikayla Swan with seven.
Seven Rams have tallied multiple RBIs on the year, led by six from Koratsis, five from Wells, and four from Nogay.
After Wells and Nicki Sudall tallied the first "See-Ya's" of the year with a solo home run each back in Texas, the Rams doubled their home run total from the season Wednesday with Koratsis sending out a three run blast over the Gaels, while Sudall mashed her second solo shot of the year.
At Iona
Bashing a pair of home runs in their first game in the Empire State this season, the Rams tacked on a pair of runs early before exploding for a five run fourth inning en route to a 10-2 win over Iona in six innings. Iona tallied a pair of runs in the fifth ahead of another three run spurt by Fordham in the top of the sixth, setting up a win by run rule.
Emilee Watkins tallied her second victory of the campaign, giving up just two runs on four hits over six innings while striking out five across the afternoon. On the offensive end, the Rams bashed a pair of home runs while scattering 12 hits on the day, with Eva Koratsis and Nicki Sudall leaving the yard Wednesday.
The 2025 Calendar
Facing six opponents that reached an NCAA Regional last season, the 2025 calendar sees Fordham play 51 games against teams from 14 different conferences including the A-10. With 19 tournament games against 10 different opponents on the non-conference side of the schedule, Fordham will also play six additional midweek non-league games throughout March and April, mixed into a nine-team, 26-game Atlantic 10 slate.
Scouting the Opponents
At 10-5 on the year, Binghamton enters the weekend on a six game winning streak dating back to Feb. 16, defeating Providence 4-0 before winning all five games at the Make it Happen Games, defeating Bellarmine and Butler twice each, along with a single win over Bethune-Cookman. With 23 hits in 52 at-bats, Brianna Santos leads the Bearcats with a .442 batting average, while Elisa Allen and Emma Lawson have led the team with 13 and 12 RBIs respectively.
Entering the weekend at 9-13 this year, Radford is coming off a pair of wins on Tuesday over Sacred Heart, after narrowly losing to No. 15 Virginia Tech, 5-4 last weekend, and have played three top-25 teams within a run on the season. Radford has four players with at least 10 RBIs on the year, and five players with 10+ hits, led in part by Isabel Harrison with 111 hits and 13 RBIs, both tied for the team high. The Radford pitching core sees Morgan Cooper and Dakota Redmon enter the weekend with four wins apiece and a combined 11 complete games in 51.1 and 50.1 innings pitched respectively.
At 6-9 on the year, James Madison has played the fewest games of any team after their second tournament of the year was cancelled due to weather. Falling in their last two games at Liberty and against No. 15 Virginia Tech, JMU looks to snap a two-game slide, led by a quartet of player with at least 10 hits on the year, and while no player has more than seven RBI's, seven different players have tallied at lead four apiece.
What's Next?
Fordham returns to The Bronx next week for its first home games of the year, kicking off a stretch of six consecutive games within the friendly confines of the freshly refurbished Bahoshy Softball Complex, beginning with a single game against Hofstra, Wed. Mar. 12 at 3:00 p.m. on ESPN+.
