NEW ORLEANS – The Fairleigh Dickinson softball team earned its first two wins of the 2019 season Friday, defeating Southern University in two of three games at Wesley Barrow Stadium in New Orleans.
 
The Knights (2-7) shut out the Jaguars (2-9) by a score of 4-0 in the first game and later won the third game of the series, 9-1 in six innings. The Jaguars earned a 6-2 victory in the second game of the day.
 
Senior Baylee Ports and sophomore Abby England each earned complete-game victories in the circle for the Knights. Ports tossed a shutout in the first game, allowing only three hits and two walks while striking out one batter. England struck out a career-best nine batters in six innings of work, giving up only two hits and one run.
 
Junior Madison Emerson starred for the Knights at the plate in the opening victory, going 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored. Freshman Courtney Mahoney later went 4-for-4 in the third game win with four RBI and a run scored. Sophomore Logan Kolehmainen finished 3-for-3 in the loss.
 
Senior Serena Meehan recorded a hit in each of the three games for the Knights.
 
In the first game, the Knights jumped in front on a Emerson single to center that scored Mahoney, and senior Reanna Cervantes followed with her own RBI single to center that plated Emerson and provided the Knights with a 2-0 advantage.
 
Cervantes helped end a Jaguar threat in the bottom of the third by throwing out a runner trying to steal second. FDU then added a third run in the fourth after senior Holly Mercier walked and later scored after advancing to third on an error and taking off for home on a pick-off attempt.
 
Ports then pitched around a double in the bottom of the fourth inning and a first-and-third situation with one out in the bottom of the fifth. After giving up a bunt single in the fifth, the senior pitcher did not allow another baserunner over the next eight batters she faced to close out the game.
 
FDU scored its fourth and final run of the game in the seventh frame, with Meehan doubling to left and later scoring on an Emerson RBI single up the middle.
 
In the second game, Southern got out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Knights countered with two runs in the next half inning. Freshman Amarys Miller-Godsey started the rally with a double down the left field line, and Mercier followed with a single that allowed the freshman to score on an error and the senior to advance to third. Another error in the infield plated Mercier, making it 2-1 in favor of FDU.
 
Junior Erica Johnson gave up a leadoff single to start the Southern half of the second but then struck out each of the next three batters and retired 10 of 12 batters in a row.
 
Southern, however, rallied in the fifth inning starting with a hit by pitch followed by four straight singles that provided the Jaguars a 3-2 lead. Johnson struck out the next batter, but the Jaguars then added three more runs before Johnson was able to induce the inning-ending groundout.
 
Senior Summer Mendoza and Kolehmainen each singled to start FDU's half of the sixth inning, and Emerson later walked to load the bases. Southern, however, induced a groundout to end the potential scoring threat, and the Knights were unable to push a run across in the seventh despite Miller-Godsey's second double of the game.
 
Johnson pitched 5.2 innings in the loss and finished with five strikeouts. Junior Irene Herrera recorded the final out of the sixth inning in relief of Johnson.

England took over as the pitcher into the final game of the day, where she went the first three innings without allowing a hit.
 
England worked around two walks in her first inning by forcing an infield fly and striking out two straight batters. Mahoney later gave the Knights a lead in the third inning with a two-RBI single up the middle that scored Meehan and freshman Riley De Laval, who each singled with two outs to start the rally.
 
England kept the offensive momentum going in FDU's half of the fourth inning by singling to right. Two errors then produced a run before sophomore Rylie Schmeh singled home Kolehmainen and freshman Jillian Ward to make it 5-0 Knights.
 
A triple followed by a sacrifice bunt produced what proved to be Southern's only run allowed by England in the bottom of the fourth, with the sophomore striking out two more batters to reach three outs in the inning.
 
A Mahoney and an error allowed England to tally a RBI in the fifth for FDU, and Ward also drove in a run on a RBI groundout to increase the lead to 7-1.
 
Schmeh tripled to start the sixth inning, and the Knights later loaded the bases for Mahoney, who added to her day with two more RBI on a single to center, again plating Meehan and De Laval.
 
Despite giving up a single and a stolen base to start the bottom of the sixth, England then responded with two straight punchouts, and Miller-Godsey, who started the game behind the plate, ended the game by throwing out a runner at third.
 
As a team, FDU totaled 24 hits compared to Southern's 14 hits, and Knights pitchers accumulated 15 strikeouts compared to just eight for the Jaguars' pitchers. Aubrion James earned all three pitching decisions for the Jaguars, tossing at least three innings in each game.
 
FDU wraps up both its series with Southern and its trip to Louisiana on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m., CT.