1
Winner
George Mason
MASON
32-21
Score By Periods
Team |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
R |
H |
E |
Fordham
FOR
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
George Mason
MASON
|
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
X |
1 |
2 |
1 |
W: Rayle, Aly (16-8)
L: BEEMAN, Holly (8-9)
BRONX, N.Y. – The #4 George Mason softball team (32-21, 16-10 A-10) shutout the defending Atlantic 10 Champions #5 Fordham (20-27, 11-10 A-10) by the score of 1-0 to start Wednesday's conference championship tournament. The Patriots advance to the quarterfinals and will face off against top-seeded Saint Louis (29-24,20-6 A-10) tomorrow at noon.
MASON BY THE NUMBERS
- Aly Rayle (7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 9 BB, 18 K) pitched her best game of her Mason career, striking out 18 Rams on the afternoon. No Fordham player made it to third base. She would record all three outs of the inning by strikeout five out of the seven innings played.
- Maddy Myers (1-2, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI) produced the only run in the game. The senior hit a home run over the left field wall in the bottom of the second inning.
- Mason captured their first A-10 Tournament victory since May 12, 2017.
MASON 1, FORDHAM 0
Newly named
Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year Aly Rayle pitched her best game in a Mason uniform to date. The graduate student struck out the side to begin the game and eventually struck out eight of the first nine batters. The lone non-strike out was a fly out to
Sydney Bales in right field.
The game's only run was scored by the Patriots in the bottom of the second inning. With one out,
Maddy Myers stepped up to the plate, and, on a 1-0 count,
launched a no-doubter over the high left field wall.
Before this game, Rayle's career high in strikeouts recorded in a single game was 12, which happened twice on
April 29 at Saint Louis and
May 5 against UMass. Both of those games needed extra innings for Rayle to reach 12 strikeouts. By the end of the fifth inning of Wednesday's playoff game, the Herndon, Va., native had 14.
Fordham's, whose bats were silenced for the majority of the game, managed to create scoring opportunities late in the game. With two outs in the top of the sixth inning, both of which were rare ground outs to
Rachel Warrens at short and
Haley Taormina at third, the Rams hit an infield single and later reached base on a fielding error. With runners on first and second, the unphased Patriot starting pitcher was able to strike out the next Ram, giving her 15 strikeouts on the day.
The top of the seventh was Fordham's most threatening inning, as they were able to string up back-to-back singles to start the inning. With nobody out, the Rams tried to bunt their way into scoring position. However, after multiple fouls and an 0-2 count,
Aly Rayle was able to get the first out of the final inning with a swinging strikeout. Rayle would then put away the final two Rams on her own again, striking them out on 2-2 counts.
UP NEXT
The #4 Patriots will take on #1 Saint Louis tomorrow at noon.
It can be watched on ESPN+ here and can also be
followed on Livestats here.