CLERMONT, Fla. – The 2017 season for the Fairleigh Dickinson softball team opened with a pair of losses to Morgan State, 7-5, and Liberty, 9-0 in five innings, on Friday in the Dot Richardson Invitational.
Game One -- Morgan State (2-0) 7, Fairleigh Dickinson (0-1) 5
The Bears and Knights were scoreless through two innings before the Knights struck twice in the top of the third.
Cheryl Lopez scored after she singled to lead off the inning.
Summer Mendoza also got on via a hit and came around to score the second run for Fairleigh Dickinson. The Knights would eventually load the bases with two walks and a hit-by-pitch but were unable to add onto the two runs.
Morgan State came right back in the bottom half of the inning and tied the game. Both runners who came around to score were unearned to
Erica Johnson as both reached on an error.
The Knights quickly broke the tie during their next at-bat in the top of the fourth. After the first two batter were retired, Lopez worked a four-pitch walk tp extend the inning. Mendoza,
Holly Mercier and
Kellie Natham all got hits. Lopez, Mendoza and Mercier all came around to score to make it a 5-2 game in favor of the Knights.
Like in the bottom of the third, Morgan State quickly came right back and tied the game with a three-run inning of its own. An error, a walk and a triple led to the first two runs for the Bears. The third run of the inning was also unearned.
Both teams went scoreless in their respective halves of the fifth inning. The Knights were sent down on strikes in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the inning, the first two Bears were retired by
Irene Herrera (0-1), who came on in the fifth. A two-out single and a walk put runners at first and second before a single to right field that fell right in front of the Knights' fielder.
Game Two – Liberty (2-0) 9, Fairleigh Dickinson (0-2) 0 F/5
The Flames scored once in the first, six times in the second and added two more in the fifth to get the run-rule win over the Knights.
Liberty scored its first run of the game on a RBI single to center from Amber Bishop that scored Sarah Robertson, who led off the inning with a single to short.
Fairleigh Dickinson got a pair of runners on in the bottom of the first inning when
Summer Mendoza reached on an error and
Kellie Natham walked. Mendoza was caught stealing third – after she had advanced on a bunt – for the second out of the inning. Natham was stranded when
Reanna Cervantes struck out to end the frame.
Robertson added her second hit of the night on a triple to right-center field that scored the two for the Flames in the top of the second. That came after Jasmeen Click knocked in a run with an infield hit.
Taylor Hoffman plated Robertson on another infield single. Alexa Hoffman concluded the scoring for the Flames with a single to right field that scored Bishop and Hoffman.
Mendoza got on base for a second time with a single through the left side of the infield. The freshman though was stranded at first on a strikeout that ended the Fairleigh Dickinson half of the third.
Cervantes would get the second of the night for the Knights in the fourth. The sophomore was advanced any further as
Madison Emerson flew out and
Kassidy Neptune was sent down on strikes.
Liberty got the game-clinching runs when Robertson her third and fourth RBIs of the night on a single to left field.
The Knights got a runner on in the bottom half of the fifth in when
Jaymee Jackson singled down the left field line with two outs. But she was unable to advance when Mendoza lined out to the shortstop to end the game.
Cheryl Lopez (0-1) got the start for the Knights and went three innings while allowing seven runs on nine hits and striking out a pair.
Baylee Ports went the remaining two innings. Chase Cassidy (1-0) went the complete five innings for the Flames. Cassidy allowed three hits and struck out five.
Fairleigh Dickinson's next game is against these same Flames tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m.
