Looking to avenge their latest defeat of the regular season, the
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
Instead of facing
‘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
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
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].