Rock Hill, S.C. – Fordham softball opened play at Winthrop's Garnet & Gold Tournament with a Saturday split, falling to Harvard, 6-5, but defeating North Carolina Central, 8-0, in six innings. With the results, the Rams move to 3-8 on the year.
Fordham rallied to turn a 5-1 deficit into a 5-5 tie in the opening contest but the Crimson would quickly score the go-ahead run in the bottom half of the fourth and hold on for the victory. The Rams plated a run in the opening frame on a
Sarah Taffet bunt single that led to a throwing error, allowing
Michaela Carter, who had walked, to score. Harvard would plate five runs against starter
Devon Miller in the bottom half of the inning, the final run crossing on a sac fly off of reliever
Holly Beeman.
After a couple of scoreless frames, Fordham struck for four runs in the fourth.
Julia Petrovich led off with a double and Miller reached no a fielder's choice.
Amanda Carey blasted her first home run of the season to cut the deficit to one, which came later in the inning on a RBI groundout by Taffet. The Crimson replied with a quick two-out rally soon after, however, getting to Beeman with a double and a single, giving the freshman an unfortunate loss.
Carey finished the game 2-for-3 with the three-run dinger, while Petrovich reached twice, also walking. Beeman allowed just the lone run over 5.2 frames with six hits allowed and two strikeouts.
Bailey Enoch enjoyed a massive two-way performance in game two, picking up her second career shutout while mashing two taters. Her first came in the opening inning, a two-run shot, scoring Carter, who had walked and stolen second. Her second was a solo shot in the sixth. The score remained the same until the fourth when Fordham tacked on three more runs. Petrovich again led off with a double and her pinch runner,
Mallory McClellan, came around to score on freshman
Eva Koratsis' first career triple.
Kate McGuire then walked and stole second and both runners came home on Carter's two-out single to left.
The contest came to an abrupt halt in the bottom of the sixth when the Rams enacted the run rule. With two outs, the offense cobbled together two runs on an error, a hit, two walks, and then
Julia Martine's walk-off single with the bases loaded. Just before that, Enoch had walked to bring in the seventh run.
Enoch allowed just five baserunners with three strikeouts to earn her first win of the year. She and Carter each reached base safely all four trips to the plate, the former walking twice, the latter singling thrice.
Fordham concludes play with tomorrow's contests against LIU and Winthrop, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
