Rider Box Score Cleveland State Box Score
The Fairleigh Dickinson University softball team fell to Garden-State foe, Rider, 5-2, before coming from behind to defeat Cleveland State, 6-3 in nine innings. The Knights move to 10-3 on the season.
The Broncs (3-10-1) pressured the Knights in the top of the second inning. With two runners on, Rider drew a walk to load the bases. An FDU error allowed one run to score before a pop up ended the inning with the bases still loaded.
The Knights compiled five hits through the fourth inning but were unable to score.
In the top of the fifth, a string of singles and a double enabled Rider to score four more runs to take a 5-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth Maire Shaughnessy (Culpeper, Va./Highland) led off with a single to right center field. A single from Lauren Hamilton (Woodinville, WA/Woodinville) advanced Shaughnessy to second, putting two runners on with Cindy Zamudio (Wilmington, Calif./Redondo Union) coming to the plate.
Zamudio singled to third base, advancing both runners to load the bases. Elizabeth Woidt drove home Shaughnessy and Hamilton on a single down the left field line, cutting the Knights' deficit to 2-5.
The Knights were unable to score in the final two innings, giving Rider the win, 2-5.
Hamilton led the Knights with two hits in three at bats. Woidt drove in the Knights' only two runs of the game.
Caitlin Bradac (Garden Grove, CA/Garden Grove) earned the loss. She struck out seven batters, while allowing five runs on nine hits in seven innings.
In the Knights' second game of the day they faced Cleveland State, a team who had been undefeated at the Rebel Spring Games. After an error put a runner on second for the Vikings in the bottom of the first, another error enabled CSU to score a run to take a 1-0 lead.
FDU had a hard time collecting hits through the fifth inning but held Cleveland State so that their advantage never increased.
A single from Bradac in the top of the sixth started the momentum swing for the Knights. Jordan Needle (Camarillo, CA/La Reina College Prep) and Maria Roney (Anacortes, WA/Anacortes) each added a single to load the bases for Kirsten Shreve (Kent, WA/Kentwood). Shreve singled to third base but the runner was called out at home, stopping the Knights from scoring but keeping the bases loaded. Another single from Shaughnessy drove home Needle to put the Knights on the board.
The sixth single in the sixth inning by Paige Castro (Elk Grove, CA/Franklin) scored Roney and tied the game at two.
Singles by Bradac and Needle and a walk from Roney loaded the bases for Shreve again in the seventh. A single to center field drove home Bradac to give the Knights a 3-2 lead in the 7th inning.
The Vikings knocked out a one run homerun in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game and send it into extra innings.
After a scoreless eighth, the Knights took the lead in the top of the ninth. Zamudio placed a single to right center field to drive home Hamilton, who had been placed on second due to the international tiebreaker rule. With Zamudio on first, Bradac hit her second homerun of the season, a line drive to right center field, to give FDU a 6-3 lead.
The Knights held the Vikings scoreless in the bottom of the ninth to secure the win, 6-3.
Freshman Megan Reiner (Los Angeles, Calif./John Marshall) earned her fifth win of the season with two earned runs on seven hits. She struck out four and walked no one in nine innings of play.
Bradac led the team offensively, with five hits in five at bats. She tripled, hit a homerun, had three singles and scored two runs with two RBIs.
Castro, Shaughnessy, Shreve and Zamudio all added one RBI for the team.
FDU will take Thursday off before facing Youngstown State and Houston Baptist on Friday, March 16.
