MERION STATION, Pa. - Top-seeded George Washington used an eight-run sixth inning to topple No. 3 Fordham, 8-1, Friday and SJU Softball Field and earn a berth into the 2021 Atlantic 10 Championship final.
The Colonials (35-9) will face No. 4 Dayton for the title Saturday at noon. Playing out of the consolation bracket of the double-elimination tournament, GW will need to beat the Flyers twice to take the crown. UD won earlier in the day in the seminfinalt advance in the winner's bracket.
Trailing by one run since the third inning, the regular season champion Colonials were on the ropes with two innings left to salvage a win. A-10 Pitcher of the Year Siera Lange, who started the game in the circle for GW, legged out an infield single to open the eight inning. With Lange on first, Alessandra Ponce smoked a two-run homerun to left center to put George Washington ahead 2-1 and open the GW offensive floodgates.
Three straight hits, an Alexa Williams single, and a Faith Weber double put two on base for Hannah Eslick, who cracked an RBI single that traced the left field line and scored two more runs. An error at third, plated pinch runner Amber Greco and a Jenna Cone double scored Amber Lotz. The Colonials batted around and Lange got another change, singling up the middle to score Cone and Jessica Linquist.
Fordham (37-10) picked up two singles in the final frame, but made no headway otherwise, sending GW to Saturday's final.
The Rams had struck first in the third inning, when Michaela Carter doubled to left center, and moved up to third on a sac bunt from Maddie Aughinbaugh. Julia Martine followed with a sac fly to score Carter and give the Rams their only run.
Fordham was in control until the sixth inning, making spectaculate defensive plays, starting with a gem of a catch by Carter to end the second inning. The Colonials threatened in the bottom of the third as Cone reached on a double to start the inning, but another highlight reel diving catch, this time in right field from Anne Marie Prentiss, stopped GW cold.
But the sixth was where the momentum swung in favor of the top seed. Lange made an incredible diving play from the circle, to catch the ball on the third base line and stop a Fordham chance, setting up the bottom of the inning heroics.
Cone, Lange, Weber and Eslick each had two hits for GW, while Ponce and Eslick each had a pair of RBI. Carter had two hits for the Rams while Martine collected the lone Fordham RBI.
Lange (19-8) collected the win, throwing a complete game with six hits, one run and nine strikeouts. Aughinbaugh (14-3) took the looks with eight runs (seven earned ) on 10 hits.