Fordham senior pitcher Madie Aughinbaugh is expected to have a big year for the Fordham softball team. Those expectations were ratcheted up ever so slightly this week.

Aughinbaugh has been named to Softball America’s list of the top 100 players in America, in the 99th position. This honor comes off the heels of another NCAA Tournament appearance for Fordham Softball and another stellar campaign by Aughinbaugh.

In 2019, the Rams’ ace pitched to a 2.44 ERA and 17 wins in a staggering 33 starts. The then-junior stalwart really picked it up, though, as the season wound to a climactic close, starting each of Fordham’s final six games — four in the Atlantic 10 Tournament and two in the NCAA Tournament. She gave up just 10 runs in those games and went the distance in all of them.

With her large part in Fordham’s seventh straight conference title and the team’s trip to the NCAA Tournament, Aughinbaugh was unsurprisingly named the Atlantic 10’s Pitcher of the Year. Fordham needed everything Aughinbaugh had at the end of last season, and Aughinbaugh was up to a task that few other pitchers in America would have been able to achieve. 

The senior was the best player on the field for Fordham last season, and it was not just for her exploits in the circle. For as good as Aughinbaugh was there, she also provided great value from the plate, where she hit a team-high .354 and tied for the team lead in hits with 63. As easy as that is to forget in her pitching exploits, she can do it all with the bat in her hands as well.

Madie Aughinbaugh will look to build off of a historic 2019 season that saw her make her mark on Fordham’s softball program and the school’s record books. The Rams will need her to be at her best again, with the team replacing several key losses at important positions.

That being said, if last year taught us one thing, it is that as long as Madie Aughinbaugh is playing for Fordham, the Rams’ potential is almost limitless.