Softball Heads To Fordham For Battle Between Top-Two A-10 Teams

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts softball team will head to Bronx, N.Y. this weekend for a three-game series against Fordham in a battle of the top-two teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference standings with just two weekends left in the regular season. The Minutewomen (28-12 Overall, 16-0 A-10) enter the matchup against the Rams (27-17 Overall, 15-1 A-10) as winners of their last six games with six consecutive series sweeps over league opponents.

UMass and Fordham matched up six times in the 2017 season, including three times in the Atlantic 10 Tournament that culminated in a winner-take-all championship game after the Minutewomen defeated Fordham 3-2 in eight innings earlier in the day to force a final game. Both teams have combined to win the last 13 A-10 Tournament titles dating back to 2011, with UMass winning seven of their 23 total tournament championships during the span.

Last time out, the Minutewomen picked up a doubleheader sweep of Rhode Island at home with a pair of wins, including a game-two win in which reigning A-10 Pitcher of the Week Kiara Oliver retired 13 consecutive batters to end the game on her way to striking out a career-high 11. The freshman continues to lead the league in strikeouts with 140 on the season and in strikeouts per seven innings while owning a 0.80 ERA in A-10 play with a 1.91 ERA on the year.

At the plate, Melissa Garcia went 4-of-6 against Rhode Island to bring her A-10 average up to the .500 mark to lead a UMass team that has four batters hitting over .400 in the league. Jena Cozza leads the A-10 in overall batting average at .474, ranking fifth in the nation in the category along with top-five marks in hit-by-pitch per game, on-base percentage, runs per game and slugging-percentage.

Fordham heads into the matchup as winners of 12 straight after sweeping Saint Louis last time out. Chelsea Skrepenak leads the Rams at the dish with a .358 batting average while Paige Rauch adds a .323 clip to go along with a 13-1 record in the circle and a 1.27 ERA. Madie Aughinbaugh has thrown the most innings for Fordham with 123.0 thrown this season to go along with a 12-6 record.

The series will begin with a doubleheader on Saturday at 12 p.m. and will wrap up with game three on Sunday at noon and will be streamed live on the Atlantic 10 Digital Network.

Team	A-10 Record	Overall Record
Massachusetts	16-0	28-12
Fordham	15-1	27-17
Dayton	12-5	25-20
George Mason	9-8	19-24
George Washington	8-9	28-17
Saint Louis	7-8	22-25
Saint Joseph's	7-10	20-22
Rhode Island	3-12	12-30
La Salle	3-13	12-28
St. Bonaventure	1-15	8-29

For complete coverage of the UMass softball team, follow the Minutewomen on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @UMassSoftball and online at www.UMassAthletics.com.

Scoreboard