FAIRFAX, Va. —No. 1 Fordham advanced to its fifth straight Atlantic 10 Softball Championship Final with a 6-2 win over second-seeded Massachusetts Saturday at the George Mason Softball Complex.
The Rams (44-14) will play the consolation bracket winner Sunday at 1:00 pm. UMass falls into the consolation bracket and will play the winner of the No. 3 Saint Joseph's/No. 6 George Mason game tonight at 6:00 pm. SJU-Mason play at 3:50 pm in the second game of the day.
Lauren Quense (22-8) took the win, allowing just two runs, both in the seventh inning, on six hits. She struck out five batters and walked three.
Madison Shaw's bat was the Rams' biggest weapon – she was 2-for-3 with three RBI. She doubled to left in the first inning, plating Jessica Hughes, who had reached on a single, for Fordham's first run. Skrepenak also was 2-for-3 at the plate for the Rams, and both Hughes and Madison Aughinbaugh each scored two runs.
Fordham jumped out early plating a run in the bottom of the first inning. The scored remained the same until the fifth inning. UMass (27-23) appeared to score in the top half of the inning when Candace Denis singled to left center with runners on, but a missed base negated the run and Fordham kept the 1-0 lead heading to the bottom of the fifth. The Rams ran through their entire lineup, adding four runs to their lead. Shaw picked up her second and third RBI with a single down the right field line that scored Sydney Canessa and Aughinbaugh. Skylar Johnston singled to shortstop to score Hughes and Amy van Hoven's single to right center scored Shaw.
Aughinbaugh added one more run in the sixth, hitting a triple to the left field wall, and then scoring on a passed ball.
UMass tried to rally in the seventh, scoring two runs on a two-out triple by Kaitlyn Stavinoha that drove in Madison Gimpl and Ashton Wince, but a ground out ended the game for the Minutewomen. Massachusetts scattered six hits among six different players, with Stavinoha colleting the two seventh-inning RBI.
UMass used two pitchers, with ace Meg Colleran getting the start. Colleran (18-13) allowed five runs on nine hits in five innings of work in taking the loss. Quinn Breidenbach finished the game, throwing one inning, allowing one hit and one run.