Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Minutewomen take on Fordham in second round of the A-10 Tournament

Looking to avenge their latest defeat of the regular season, the Massachusetts softball team will take on fourth-seeded Fordham in the Bronx in its opening game of the Atlantic 10 Softball Championship on later this afternoon.

UMass earned the No. 1 seed and first-round bye for the tournament by claiming the A-10 regular season title with a 35-8 overall record and a 16-2 record in conference play. The four-time defending A-10 champion Minutewomen are searching for their 21st title overall and their 14th in the last 15 years.

Fordham (36-20, 13-7 A-10) is coming off of a win in the first-round against No. 5 seed Saint Joseph’s on Wednesday at Bahoshy Field, host of the A-10 Championships.

The hometown favorite Rams fell behind the Hawks (23-18, 9-7 A-10) early, as Saint Joseph‘s picked up two quick runs in the first and another in the second inning. The Rams came back with a three-run fourth inning to tie the game before taking the lead for good with a pair of runs in the fifth to hold onto the 5-3 win.

Instead of facing Saint Joseph‘s, against whom UMass fared well in two victories in the regular season, the Minutewomen will take on a team that’s not intimidated and is unwilling to back down.

‘Everybody is going to be tough. Everybody is going to play us tough. They did earlier in the year and they are going to now,’ UMass coach Elaine Sortino said. ‘There are no weak sisters in this tournament.’

In their matchup this year, the Minutewomen split their doubleheader with the Rams to end the regular season, winning the first game of the series, 4-0, before falling 5-4 in the two-game series finale..

In the first game, senior Brandice Balschmiter (28-4) provided an impressive one-hit complete-game shutout, striking out 13 batters and allowing only one base runner on an infield single. Junior Sarah Reeves supplied the offense for the Minutewomen, going 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.

However, Fordham snapped UMass’ 54-game regular season home winning streak with the victory in the series finale. The last time the Minutewomen lost a home game was back on April 9, 2006 when UMass dropped a 2-1 loss to Charlotte.

Junior Bailey Sanders (1-3) struggled in her outing, taking the loss after allowing four runs on four hits and two walks in only one-plus inning of work. For Fordham, sophomore Beckah Wiggins and senior Melissa Andrews both homered to give the Rams their first ever win in Amherst.

If UMass can pull out the victory against the Rams, it will face the winner of the No. 2 Charlotte (32-14, 14-4 A-10) vs. No. 3 Saint Louis (31-21, 12-6 A-10) matchup on Friday at 1 p.m.

‘Our goal is our conference title. That is our goal,’ Sortino said before leaving Tuesday for the Tournament. ‘We’ve worked very, very hard to position ourselves to get to the conference championship, that is always our goal, and now it is to win it.’

Jay Asser can be reached at [email protected].

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