Softball splits games against Fairleigh Dickinson

The Columbia softball team (9-22) finished its six-game road stretch by splitting two games against nonconference opponent Fairleigh Dickinson.

The Lions scored three runs in the first inning with two outs after Dani Pineda’s single to left. Kayla Lechler followed with a single, and Maggie Johnson walked to load the bases before Christie Taylor knocked a bases-clearing double to right field. The Knights answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to make the score 3-2.

Neither team scored again until the fourth inning, when Johnson led off the eight-run inning with a double to left field, followed by Taylor’s walk and Aimee Kemp’s single to load the bases with one out. Anne Marie Skylis, Alison Lam, Jennifer Bergeron, and Pineda hit four straight RBI singles to make the score 7-2. Lechler knocked a 1-2 pitch over the wall in left field for her first career home run, a grand slam to put her team up 11-3.

Fairleigh Dickinson answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning. Before Jessica Rakonza was substituted for Columbia starter Maureen O’Kane, O’Kane threw three-and-two-thirds innings, allowing two earned runs off of six hits. Rakonza picked up the final 10 outs in relief, allowing six hits and two earned runs for her first win of the season as Columbia took game one 12-8.

In game two, the Knights jumped out to a 5-0 lead with three runs in the third inning and two more in the fourth. Columbia didn’t score until the sixth inning, when Lechler reached base on a throwing error and Johnson hit a double down the left field line to set up Taylor’s two-RBI hit to left field. The Lions went down in order in the bottom of the seventh and lost 5-2. Johnson threw six innings and struck out four hitters in the loss. Kirsten Shreve picked up the win for the Knights, allowing five hits, one earned run, and four strikeouts in seven complete innings for her third win of the season.
Columbia will return to Ivy League action this weekend with a pair of doubleheaders against Princeton on Saturday, April 17 and Sunday, April 18.