Fordham sophomore Jen Mineau earned her second Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Week accolade of the season, along with freshman Jamie LaBovick who was named A-10 Rookie of the Week.

Mineau, who shared this week’s pitching honor with Emily Jeffrey of Charlotte, has been awarded the honor four times throughout her career, while LaBovick received her first career award.

During this past weekend’s Palm Springs Classic, Mineau took the mound five times in which she pitched three wins, two shutouts and 44 strikeouts. In the Rams’ opening game of the tournament against Texas A&M, she struck out a record-breaking 15 batters, and currently holds Fordham’s record for the top two strikeout performances in history. Mineau struck out 11 batters in a win over Oregon State as well, leading the way for Fordham to win over a Pac-10 program for the first time ever.

Mineau finished out the tournament on a strong note against UNLV with a one-sided 13-strikeout shutout.

With the tournament, she improves to 5-1 on the season with 75 strikeouts, three walks and a 0.72 ERA.

LaBovick, who is currently hitting .261 on the season, also had a strong presence at the tournament with two home runs and four RBIs. She had a two-run homer against Texas A&M which locked in the victory, and another two-run homer in the shutout against UNLV. 

Fordham is currently 6-3 overall and has yet to compete in A-10 play. The squad will take the field again March 5-7 to compete in the USF/Under Armour Invitational.

SLU disappointment

Saint Louis fell to 4-5 after suffering its fourth-straight defeat in the Cardinal Classic held in Louisville, Ky. last Saturday. The Billikens lost 5-3 to Louisville (13-2) as well as 12-6 to Northern Illinois.

SLU got off to a promising 2-0 start in the top of the first against the Cardinals after sophomore Liz Jones hammered a RBI double to left field.

In the same inning, however, Louisville made a comeback and managed to take a 3-2 lead as the inning came to a close. The Cardinals continued to extend their lead and the Billikens were only able to tack on one more run by the end of the game.

The matchup with Northern Illinois later in the afternoon didn’t go much better as the Billikens trailed the entire game. There was a sudden flash of energy from SLU when they were able close the scoring gap to just three runs in the bottom of the sixth, making it 9-6. This was as close as the Billikens would come to taking the lead, however, and the Huskies later tacked on three more runs to come away with the 12-6 victory.

Despite a discouraging afternoon for the Billikens, SLU senior Brittney Schmidt was awarded A-10 Player of the Week for her efforts. Not only did she hit .500, but she also made a strong impact at the tournament with 13 total bases, a 1.083 slugging percentage and a .571 on-base percentage.

SLU will try to get some momentum going this weekend at the Missouri Breast Cancer Awareness Tournament.

Dayton unsuccessful in Florida

Dayton suffered losses in both games Monday at the Rebel Spring Games tournament in Kissimmee, Fla. The Flyers’ first outing of the afternoon resulted in a close 9-7 loss against Holy Cross.

Three players, including seniors Anne Maci and Molly Meyer, and freshman Kathleen Maloof, were responsible for all but two of the Flyers’ total eight hits. Out of the nine runs scored by the Crusaders, only two were earned as Dayton was plagued with defensive errors from the very beginning. Inning after inning, Holy Cross was able to capitalize on the Flyers’ errors and tack on runs.

After the Crusaders took a 9-4 lead in the third, Dayton spent the rest of the game attempting to close the gap. In the fifth inning, the Flyers managed to drive in two runs to bring the score to 9-6.

The seventh inning showed promise for Dayton after Kathleen Maloof hit a RBI double to drive in a run, but it ended up being the only run scored in the inning and the Crusaders went on to win the game.

The Flyers’ second game of the afternoon against Maine ended in heartache as the contest abruptly ended when the Black Bears hit a game-winning walk-off home run.

Dayton will try to get wins as the Rebel tournament continues through this afternoon. Next up, the team will travel to South Carolina for the Charleston Southern Tournament from March 5-6.

Kara Deyermenjian can be reached at [email protected].