SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Fairleigh Dickinson softball team earned its first win of the 2020 season Friday afternoon, defeating Grambling State 4-2 in its first game of the Cardinal Invitational.
 
The Knights recorded nine hits and started out with a first-inning lead before turning the game over to a strong pitching effort by junior Abby England, who recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts while allowing only three hits and two runs in the complete-game victory.
 
Sophomore Riley De Laval led FDU offensively, going 3-for-4 out of the leadoff spot with three singles, a RBI and a run scored, knocking in the go-ahead run in the fifth inning. Junior Rylie Schmeh also went 2-for-3 with a run scored in the win, and senior Summer Mendoza recorded a triple to go with a run scored.
 
FDU did not take long to score its first run of the season as freshman Savannah Thornell singled home sophomore De Laval on an infield hit, with sophomore Courtney Mahoney moving to third after reaching on an error. Mahoney, who also recorded her first hit of the season in the game, later scored on a double steal attempt by the Knights to make it 2-0.
 
England struck out five of the first six batters she faced, but the Tigers (0-6) then got one run back in the third on a double followed by a bunt single and a double steal.
 
The Knights gained the run back in the fifth, however, as De Laval singled home Mendoza on a ball up the middle after Mendoza walked and moved to second on a bunt to start the inning. Freshman Jalyse Hanson then drove home an insurance run in the sixth inning with a line drive hit into the right-center gap that plated Schmeh to give FDU a 4-1 lead in the sixth inning.
 
Grambling State scored a run in the bottom of the sixth on an inside-the-park home run by Tyra Triplett, but England then recorded five straight outs to end her day, including four more punchouts over the last two innings.
 
The Knights also stole two bases in the game, with Schmeh and sophomore Jillian Ward each swiping a bag in the victory.
 
FDU continues the Cardinal Invitational later in the day with a game against host Incarnate Word.