STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Senior
Baylee Ports eclipsed 200 career strikeouts and earned a complete game victory as the Fairleigh Dickinson softball team split a doubleheader at Wagner Saturday, winning the first game 4-2 before falling 7-4 in the second.
Ports finished her sterling complete-game effort in the circle with seven strikeouts, running her career total to 203, and only allowed five hits and two runs in garnering her sixth win and ninth complete game of the season. She in the process moved up to sixth in FDU history with 16 career wins 10th in complete games (19).
Three players finished with multiple hits in the opening game. Freshman
Courtney Mahoney went 2-for-2 and smacked the game-winning RBI single, while senior
Holly Mercier and freshman
Riley De Laval each finished 2-for-3. Mercier scored the winning run for the Knights, and De Laval recorded her first career extra-base hit with a double in the sixth inning.
The Seahawks took an early 1-0 lead in the first game on a sacrifice fly and scored a second run on a RBI triple in the second inning. Ports reached her milestone strikeout in her fourth inning of work and proceeded to strike out the side in that frame to keep the deficit at 2-0 through four innings.
Mercier then started the fifth inning with her second single to left of the day, and De Laval followed with a double down the left field line to put runners in scoring position with one out. Mahoney then roped a pinch-hit single into right field that scored Mercier, cutting the margin to one, 2-1.
The Knights then tied the game in the next inning when senior
Reanna Cervantes lined a double into the right-center gap that scored sophomore
Logan Kolehmainen from second. Senior
Serena Meehan then laid down a bunt single to put runners on the corners, and the Knights put on a double steal that allowed pinch runner
Samantha Cortez to scurry home and provide a 3-2 lead.
Freshman
Amarys Miller-Godsey later added an insurance run with a RBI single to right center, plating Meehan to make it 4-2.
After giving up the triple in the second inning, Ports retired 15 of the final 17 batters she faced over her last five innings, limiting the Seahawks' chances and earning the complete game victory.
In game two, the Knights struck first with Kolehmainen driving home two runs on a single to shallow left in the third inning, plating Mahoney and sophomore
Rylie Schmeh to provide a 2-0 advantage.
The Seahawks, however, gained both runs back in the next half inning, but Cervantes led off the Knight half of the fourth with a double off the right field wall and Mercier followed with a bunt single before stealing second to put runners in scoring position. Miller-Godsey then brought the go-ahead run home on a sacrifice fly, and De Laval added to the lead with an infield single, making it 4-2.
Wagner then loaded the bases in its half of the fourth to chase junior
Erica Johnson from the game, but sophomore
Abby England left the runners stranded, coming in relief and getting the final out of the inning on a popup to Mahoney in foul territory.
England did give up a solo home run to Wagner's Kayla Smith in the fifth inning, dropping the lead down to one at 4-3, but the sophomore limited the damage to just the lone run. Johnson then returned to the mound in the sixth inning and pitched a scoreless frame.
Wagner, however, rallied with two outs in the bottom half of the seventh and won the game on a grand slam by pinch hitter Christina Harkins.
The Knights wrap up the regular season at home next weekend, taking on Saint Francis U on Saturday, May 4, at noon, then playing Robert Morris the following day starting at 2:30 p.m. The Knights will hold Senior Day ceremonies prior to Saturday's games vs. SFU.
