Army Ends Fordham’s 20-Game Win-Streak

BRONX – The Army West Point softball team split its doubleheader with Fordham Saturday afternoon. The Black Knights had a dramatic seventh inning rally to win the first contest, 4-3, and dropped a tight, 3-2, decision in the second game.

In the first contest, Fordham scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning.

Army got a run back in the top of the second with Megan Muffett hitting a solo homer over the left field wall to cut the Rams lead to 2-1. The La Center, Wash., native has hit five home runs in the last three weekend series and is up to six on the season.

“Meg is seeing the ball as well as anybody. She is anchoring the defense as well behind the plate. She’s doing everything she can do to help us win ball games,” Army head coach Cheryl Milligan said praising Army’s senior captain.

Fordham answered back with a run in the bottom of the second to push back ahead by two.
In the top of the seventh inning, Angelina Bebek hit a three-run blast over the fence in right center with two outs to give Army the 4-3 lead.

“Something that we’ve been talking about with the team is making sure that you’re learning in each at bat. Making sure that your first at bat is the worst at bat that you’re going to have that day and that your second at bat is a little better and so on. I thought Angelina did just that. She did a good job of staying inside the ball and driving it the other way. She has a lot of power when she does that and it really paid off for us in crucial situation for us today,” Milligan said.

Jolie Duong improved to 4-0 on the season in the circle. The Houston, Texas, native had five strikeouts and just one earned run in seven innings of work.

The win ended the Rams’ 20-game win-streak.

In the second contest, Army jumped to an early 2-0 lead. Ally Snelling scored Muffett with a two-out RBI triple to left field in the first. In her next at bat, Snelling hit home Kayla Edwards with an RBI double in the top of the third.

The Rams, however, got one back in the bottom half of the third to cut Army’s lead to one.

Bailey Enoch hit a solo shot in the fourth to even the score and Julia Martine hit what proved to be the go-ahead homer in the bottom of the sixth.

Bebek hit a two-out double in the bottom of the seventh to get into scoring position, but was left stranded.

Alicyn Grete had six strikeouts in 6.0 innings of work in the circle.

“We’ve had some really great innings played,” Milligan said. “We need to be more consistent and be able to carry that through two games. It was great to get the win in the first game, but we still have work to do.”