By Anthony Pucik
Heading into this past week, the Fordham softball team was 18-16 on the season and 4-4 in conference play. Having two of the toughest opponents in the Atlantic 10 in St. Louis and Dayton, the Rams were at .500 in conference play heading into a weekend matchup with the University of Massachusetts Minutewomen out in Amherst.
Following a doubleheader loss to Dayton to close out its first conference series at home, Fordham exploded for 15 runs in a game against Siena on Tuesday April 7, and that offense carried over into the weekend.
In the first game of their doubleheader with UMass on Saturday April 11, Fordham got on the board when sophomore Sydney Canessa scored on a passed ball to give the Rams a 1-0 advantage. The Rams tacked on another run in the top of the third on sophomore Amy Van Hoven’s RBI single and two more on sophomore Lindsay Mayer’s two-run homerun in the fifth to take a 4-0 lead.
The Minutewomen scored two in the bottom of the fifth off Rams’ junior starter Rachel Gillen to cut the Fordham lead to two, but the Ram offense exploded after that. In the sixth Fordham scored five runs, the big hit a two-RBI single by Mayer, to go up 9-2.
Fordham continued to pad the lead in the seventh, scoring three runs on a Van Hoven RBI single, a Mayer sacrifice fly and senior Kayla Lombardo’s RBI ground out to make it a 10-run advantage. UMass scored two off junior reliever Patti Maloney in the bottom of the inning, but it was not enough as Fordham took the game 12-4. Gillen picked up her 13th win of the season to improve to 13-7, while Minutewomen starter Caroline Raymond suffered the loss and dropped to 6-10.
The second game was much of the same for the Rams. Senior Paige Ortiz hit a grand slam in the first inning to open up the scoring, followed by four more runs in the second on a Van Hoven RBI single, Lombardo walk, a wild pitch that scored Van Hoven and sacrifice fly for Gillen to make it 8-0 Rams after one and a half innings.
UMass scored runs in the second and fourth off Fordham’s senior starter Michelle Daubman to make it 8-2, but senior Cora Ianiro added a run in the top of the fifth on a RBI single to make it a seven-run lead. The Minutewomen added a run in the fifth off Maloney, but two-run home runs by both Mayer and Ortiz expanded the Rams lead to 13-3 and gave them the victory in six innings. The win bumped Daubman’s record to 5-7 on the year, while UMass’ Meg Colleran suffered the loss (1-8).
The Rams wrapped up their series with the Minutewomen on Sunday, April 12. Fordham once again started the scoring, this time in the top of the second on a grand slam by Canessa and a two-RBI single by Gillen to take a 6-0 lead.
That was all Gillen would need, pitching four shutout innings and surrendering five hits, walking no one and striking out four. Maloney and Daubman completed the final three innings giving up only two hits and striking out two with no walks, as Fordham completed the sweep of UMass with a 6-0 victory in the final game. Gillen picked up her 14th victory of the season (14-7) and Raymond earned another loss (6-11).
Fordham’s three wins improved its record to 21-16 on the season and 7-4 in A-10 play. The Rams take their four game winning streak on the road to St. Bonaventure for a doubleheader on Wednesday April 15, with the first game starting at 2 p.m. The team returns home this weekend to host Saint Joseph’s.
