By Anthony Pucik
Much like last season, the Fordham softball team has been picked to win the Atlantic 10 conference in the preseason poll. Fordham, winner of three of the last four A-10 titles, has started its 2015 campaign with a 6-4 record, recently winning four of five games down in Tampa, Florida, at the USF Presidents Day Weekend Tournament.
Despite losing shortstop and ECAC Softball Player of the Year Elise Fortier and catcher Gabby Luety to graduation, Fordham for the most part has kept a crux of its championship team. Two players instrumental to the team’s success are sophomores Amy Van Hoven and Sydney Canessa, who were named First Team All-Conference in their freshmen campaigns last season.
Van Hoven played in all but one game last season and started in 51, batting .367 with 12 doubles and nine RBI, leading the team in multi-hit games with 19 and tied the team’s longest hit streak of the season of ten straight games. Meanwhile Canessa, the Rams’ leadoff hitter, started all 56 games for Fordham and batted .309 with six homeruns and 26 RBI. She also finished second in the A-10 in runs scored with 48.
There is also plenty of senior leadership in the lineup for the Rams, including senior Kayla Lombardo. A member of the A-10 All-Championship Team last season, Lombardo batted .313 with ten home runs, 35 RBI and a .556 slugging percentage. Her natural position is third base, but she also played catcher early on this season. She, Brianna Turgeon and Paige Ortiz, are veterans on the team who have been to the top before, know what it takes to win and lead not only with their experience but with their play on the field.
One place where Fordham lost no players this season is the pitching rotation. Led by First Team All-Conference senior ace Michelle Daubman, Fordham’s pitching rotation is solid from top to bottom once again this year.
It starts with Daubman, who went 18-11 last season, giving up less than a hit per inning, striking out 72 batters and posting five shutouts. After that comes redshirt junior Rachel Gillen and sophomore Lauren Quense. Gillen had a strong first season for Fordham, coming off injury last year, going 8-4 in 11 starts and 25 appearances and pitching two complete games, one being the fourth no-hitter in Fordham softball history. Quense also pitched well in her first collegiate season with the Rams, going 5-4 in 14 starts and posting six complete games and one shutout while only giving up 39 earned runs in 82.1 innings of work. With junior reliever Patti Maloney in the mix, Fordham will be a tough team for hitters to face game in and game out.
Along with some of Fordham’s old faces come a few new ones, including sophomore transfers Lindsay Mayer from the University of Virginia and Ally Vergona from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as well as freshmen Morgan Figueroa and Madison Shaw. With a solid core of veterans and plenty of young players to compliment them, there’s no reason the Rams cannot secure another A-10 title this season.
