LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – The Fairleigh Dickinson softball team battled from behind with three runs in the final two innings of its first game at Rider, winning 3-2 before falling 4-2 in the later game.
Down to their final out with runners on first and second, the Knights (12-31) won the game on an
Amarys Miller-Godsey two-run single, providing her with 11 RBI for the season. Junior
Erica Johnson earned the complete game victory for FDU, her fourth win and sixth complete game of the season.
Junior
Madison Emerson, returning to the lineup after missing the last 16 games, went 2-for-3 with a RBI single in her first game back. Sophomore
Rylie Schmeh led the Knights with a 3-for-4 effort in the second game, and seniors
Serena Meehan and
Holly Mercier had hits in each game. Meehan in the process extended her current hitting streak to nine consecutive games.
Rider started out the first game by loading the bases in the second and third innings, scoring one run in each frame to take a 2-0 lead. The Knights produced two singles, one by Emerson and one by Meehan, in the second and fourth innings but could not take advantage.
Freshman
Courtney Mahoney then started the sixth inning with a base hit up the middle, and with two outs, Emerson lined a hit to right field that brought Mahoney home from second to make it 2-1. Emerson, however, was thrown out trying to stretch her hit into a double to end the threat.
The Knights then kept the Broncs (7-33) off the scoreboard in the bottom half of the sixth, and senior
Holly Mercier later lined a single to center to keep the Knights' chances going, moving to second base on a pitch in the dirt. Junior
Summer Mendoza then worked a walk with two outs, and Miller-Godsey provided the clutch hit into the gap in right center, allowing Mercier and Mendoza to score to make it 3-2 Knights.
Junior
Erica Johnson scattered 10 hits and four walks over her seven innings pitched, striking out five batters while allowing just the two early runs. After the third inning, Johnson allowed only three hits, pitching her way out of another bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning by inducing an infield pop-up. The Knight defense turned a double play in the sixth on a line drive to second baseman
Logan Kolehmainen, and Johnson then retired each of her three batters in the seventh.
FDU kept their momentum going into the start of the second game. After senior
Reanna Cervantes was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on an error, Mercier reached on another error that allowed Cervantes to score the first run of the game. Mendoza then singled up the middle to bring home Mercier to make it 2-0 Knights in the second inning.
Rider's Kiera Swank then hit a home run in the bottom half of the inning to cut the lead in half, but senior
Baylee Ports settled in to put up zeros in the third and fourth innings. The Broncs, however, then rallied for three runs with two outs in the fifth on a RBI single and a Rachael Zeides two-run home run, making it 4-2 in favor of Rider.
Cervantes then singled to lead off the sixth for the Knights, and Meehan laid down a bunt single to put runners on first and second. Mercier then beat out an infield hit to load the bases, but the next two FDU batters produced outs to end the potential rally.
The Knights again threatened in the seventh when Schmeh singled to put a runner on with one out, but Rider then got the last two outs it needed to end the game.
Ports struck out one batter in pitching 4.2 innings, giving up nine hits and four runs in the loss. Sophomore
Abby England pitched the final 1.1 innings in relief, retiring four of the five batters she faced.
The Knights take a week long break before returning home to play Lafayette in a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m., at the FDU Softball Field.
