GAME RESULTS
No. 2 Saint Louis 3, No. 3 Fordham 2 (8 innings)
No. 2 Saint Louis 4, No. 3 Fordham 3
Atlantic 10 Championship Finals
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Washington, D.C. (GW Softball Field)
 
THE BASICS
Saint Louis University softball captured its first Atlantic 10 Conference Championship title Saturday afternoon, defeating Fordham 3-2 (eight innings) and 4-3.
 
The Billikens (34-22) will make the first NCAA Championship appearance in program history beginning Friday, May 16. SLU will learn its regional site and first-round opponent during the NCAA Selection Show on ESPN2 Sunday at 6 p.m.
 
Saint Louis, which earned a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed, slipped to the elimination round with a 6-5 loss to Fordham in its first tournament game on Thursday. The Billikens defeated Saint Joseph's 3-2 and Dayton 1-0 (10 innings) on Friday to earn a spot in the finals.
 
Abby Mallo was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the All-Tournament team by Taylor Hochman, Kendall Johnson, Natalie Sullivan and Isabel Royle.
 
Mallo had six RBIs on the day to lift her season total to 80, which ties the A-10 record.
 
The Bills' 34 victories are the second most in program history.
 
GAME 1 – HOW IT HAPPENED
•Fordham opened the scoring with a run in the top of the fifth inning.
•Saint Louis answered right away with two runs in its half of the fifth. Abby Ulsas reached on a two-out single and Mallo followed with her 19th home run of the year, leaving her just one shy of the A-10 record.
•Fordham engineered a two-out rally of its own in the seventh and plated the tying run, but Hochman stranded two more runners to keep the game tied.
•Chloe Rhine led off the eighth with a walk, and pinch runner Addie Duttlinger moved to second on Allie Marietta's one-out walk. Karsen Jany's double chased Duttlinger home with the winning run.
 
GAME 1 – BILLIKEN NOTABLES
•Hochman worked the first seven innings. She allowed 10 hits and two walks but escaped numerous jams, stranding two Fordham runners on four occasions.
•Royle pitched the eighth to notch the victory, yielding one hit.
•Mallo added a single for a two-hit game.
•Sullivan tallied two singles.
•Rhine and Anna Christ had a single apiece.
 
GAME 2 – HOW IT HAPPENED
•Fordham again took the first lead with a first-inning run.
•SLU registered three 2-out runs in the fifth. Walks to Marietta and Jany and Sullivan's bunt single loaded the bases with one away. Following a force out at home, Mallo lifted a shallow fly ball that eluded the center fielder attempting to make a diving catch, and all three runners scored on the double.
•Fordham responded with two runs in the sixth to forge a 3-3 deadlock, but Royle stranded two more runners.
•Marietta began the decisive bottom of the seventh with a single and was forced at second by Jany. A Sullivan bunt single and Ulsas' single loaded the bases for Mallo, whose hard-hit ground ball was bobbled momentarily by the shortstop to give Jany time to beat the throw home.
 
GAME 2 – BILLIKEN NOTABLES
•Royle notched her 13th victory of the season and third of the tournament. She struck out five and gave eight hits and three walks.
•Johnson collected two singles.
•Christ recorded a single.
•Saint Louis turned its 25th double play of the season, tying the school record.