SACRAMENTO, CA - The Fairleigh Dickinson softball team dropped a pair of games Saturday afternoon at the NorCal Challenge, falling 9-3 to Santa Clara and 5-0 to Pacific. The losses push the Knights to 4-14 on the season.
FDU returns to action tomorrow when they close out their west coast swing with a game against UC Davis at 12:30 p.m. EST.
Game One: Santa Clara 9, Fairleigh Dickinson 3
Santa Clara pitcher Aubree Kim was a force for the Broncos in FDU's first game of the day, giving up just four hits an no earned runs over a strong seven innings.
After back to back strikeouts to start the game, Kim forced
Madison Emerson into a ground out to put up a 1-2-3 first inning. The SCU bats did not waste much time providing run support either, going up 1-0 in the bottom of the opening frame on an RBI single to center.
In the third inning Santa Clara pushed its lead to three runs, and
Irene Herrera replaced
Erica Johnson in the circle for FDU.
Summer Mendoza ended Kim's perfect game bid in the top of the fourth with a leadoff double, putting a runner on the base paths for the first time in the game for the Knights, however Kim retired two of her next three batters to keep the lead at three. A two-run double courtesy of Samantha Needham in the bottom of teh fourth gave SCU a 5-0 stranglehold on the game.
The Knights mounted a sprinted comeback rally, getting back three runs off of three hits and an error. After
Holly Mercier drove a leadoff single to right,
Abby England drew a walk to put runners on first and second.
Logan Kolehmainen laid down a perfect SAC bunt to score Mercier, reaching first base herself due to an error from the SCU shortstop.
Jamee Jackson singled two at-bats later to load the bases for Emerson, who drove in a pair with a single up the middle to cut teh lead to 5-3. Unfortunately the comeback fell short as the Knights falied to muster any more offense.
SCU would cushion their lead, adding a pair of runs in the fifth and sixth innings to earn the 9-3 win.
Game Two: Pacific 5, Fairleigh Dickinson 0
The Knights were shutout in game two by another dominant pitching performance, as Pacific's Hailey Reed struck out seven in seven innings of shutout ball, scattering just three hits in the process.
Neither the Knights or Tigers could muster much at the plate for the first three innings, as the two squads combined for just one hit.
Pacific opened up the scoring in the top of the fourth, however when a double to right field scored to Tigers to give Pacific its first lead, 2-0. They would add one more in each of the last three innings of play to come away with the 5-0 victory.
Baylee Ports earned the loss for FDU, pushing her record to 1-4 on the year.
