SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Fairleigh Dickinson softball team lashed out 12 hits and nine runs in a 9-2 victory over Grambling State to complete its opening weekend trip to Texas Sunday morning.
 
The Knights (2-3) gained the advantage when freshman Savannah Thornell blasted a three-run home run, the first of the season by a Knight, in the third inning. The Tigers (1-8) later made it 3-2 in the next frame, but the Knights added more runs over the next three innings while freshman Malori Bell allowed just one hit over the final three stanzas to earn the victory.
 
Junior Rylie Schmeh led the FDU hitters by going 3-for-3 at the plate with two doubles, two runs scored and two RBI. Sophomore Samantha Cortez and freshman Jalyse Hanson each recorded two hits and a run batted in as well, and the Knights as a team finished with five extra-base hits.
 
Bell scattered four hits and four walks across her seven innings pitched and struck out five batters in earning her first collegiate victory. She held the Tigers hitless her first time through the order, allowing just one walk before giving up a single in the third inning.
 
The freshman then started FDU's rally in the bottom half of the third with a double to right center. After sophomore Riley De Laval walked to put two runners on base, Thornell smashed a ball over the fence in left center for her first home run as a Knight. Senior Madison Emerson also doubled in the inning, with Schmeh and Hanson following with a walk and a single to load the bases, but Grambling State ended the rally with a strikeout.
 
A leadoff home run by Anaiyah Fultz cut into FDU's lead in the top of the fourth, and Grambling State added a second run on a throwing error to make it 3-2. The Knights, however, responded with runs in the next three innings, as Cortez laced a single up the middle that plated freshman Cassidy Triska to up the advantage back to two for FDU.
 
Schmeh then doubled home Emerson to start FDU's half of the fifth, with Hanson later singling home Schmeh to give the Knights a 6-2 lead. The junior outfielder then added to her day with another RBI hit that scored Emerson in the sixth, and senior Summer Mendoza recorded her first two RBI of the season with a base hit to left center that brought home Schmeh and Hanson later in the inning.
 
FDU's 12 hits in the game were the most since 2018, and the Knights concluded the five-game tournament to start the 2020 season with a .293 team batting average, 41 hits, 19 runs, eight doubles and 18 RBI. FDU pitchers combined for 37 strikeouts in 35.2 innings, posting a team earned run average of 2.94 in the five games.
 
The Knights return to New Jersey for an extended break before going back on the road to Norfolk, Va., to play a doubleheader at Norfolk State on Friday, February 28, starting at 2 p.m.