Alright, to clear things up right off the bat (see what I did there), I'm not only writing this because I'm a part of the team. This isn't a PR stunt or an estranged effort towards extra playing time. I genuinely believe that if you read this with an open mind and give this group of talented young women a chance, we might have some quality entertainment to offer you.

First things first- we're the realest. And by "the realest," I mean we've got a legitimate legacy.

Under head coach Bridget Orchard, the Rams have won 6 out of the last 7 Atlantic 10 Conference Championships, 5 of those in a row, and have received bids to the NCAA tournament 7 out of the last 8 years. Last year our record was 46-17, (18-5 in Conference play), and since Orchard took over in 2001, the team's overall record improved from just 178 wins in 16 years, to an impressive 769 wins as of the culmination of the 2017 Spring season.

Orchard has been named A10 Coach of the Year seven times since her time at Fordham, we've had five Atlantic 10 Players of the Year, three Pitcher of the Year honorees, six A10 Rookies of the Year, and an All-American in Jen Mineau (2010, 2011). Last season, Fordham was able to knock of Baylor early in the 2017 season, a top 25-ranked opponent.

They also managed to post a .409 team on-base percentage as well as a total batting average of .310, with 53 home runs and an entire pitching staff ERA of 2.27. Since 2011, Fordham Softball has been undoubtedly the school's most dominating program.

Secondly, if you're looking for more of a "cliche-based-on-a-true-story" sports film kind of feel, we're finally the underdogs this season.

We lost 8 players from last year's team including 5 seniors and 5 girls who consistently started including Jessica Hughes, named First Team All-Conference, First Team NFCA All-Region, First Team All-ECAC, and CoSIDA Academic All-District her sophomore year and A10 Rookie of the Year in her impressive freshmen season. We brought in 6 freshmen and 1 junior transfer, so basically, we're inexperienced, and no one expects us to continue the legacy that's been built up since 2011.

The other nine schools are gunning for us, and they've pretty much decided that this is the year Fordham is dethroned from its Atlantic 10 reign. Although we finished our Fall season undefeated (8-0), we've suffered injuries, bad weather, lack of equipment, and c'mon, it's a group of girls age 18 to 22, so plenty of internal drama.

Oh, yes, the players, the creators of that internal drama. I guess we're cool too. Actually, yeah, we've got some interesting characters on our team.

We've got 10 different states represented on our squad including Washington, Florida, Virginia, and obviously New Jersey and New York. We're as short as 5'2 and as tall as 5'10. There may be future business owners, researchers, and sports journalists on our team, but right now, we're all softball players. Our two captains are Q and Madi Shaw.

Q, or Lauren Quense, is actually a 5th-year senior, and was Co-Pitcher of the Year last year. When you're watching this year, you'll pick her out real quick because of her bright pink lipstick and a giant bow. Madi Shaw, a senior stud and product of the greatest place in the world, Massachusetts, gets up to bat with the Dropkick Murphy's "Shipping Up to Boston" blasting on the speaker.

We've got a girl on ROTC, a girl who goes by "Big Country" and refers to all types of pants as "britches," two gingers, a girl who might possibly be the second coming of Beyonce, a freshmen starting at shortstop, and a girl who wears hoop earrings during practices and games (that's me, in case you were wondering).

This is the Bronx we're talking about, not Manhattan, or Albany, or NYC. We've got character, spunk, sass, and a lot of competitiveness. When you watch us play, we don't look like the most intimidating group of women, but we're a whole lot of fun. We get down and dirty, and we're not afraid to be a little different. It's sad how many cliches I can throw into one paragraph, but they're all genuinely true.

This unlikely crew will be taking on some pretty big teams in the Spring Season. Our very first game is against #5 ranked UCLA (February 15th), and a few days later we play #16 ranked Utah (who beat Fordham in last year's NCAA regionals).

Some other notable opponents include Notre Dame, Alabama (ranked 11th), and of course, Team Japan, winners of the 2017 World Cup of Softball. With this in mind, should we pull off the upset against Japan, we would technically be the best softball team in the entire world...so...you should probably watch us, you know, just in case.

If you're unsure about the sport itself, let me just remind you- softball is more exciting than baseball. It's also harder, which the general public learned in ESPN's Sport Science experiment which proved in this video here.

Or FSN'S Sport Science experiment with Jennie Finch here:

The games are shorter (for those of you with short attention spans like myself) and there's significantly more action (slapping, bunting, base hits, double plays; instead of three minutes per pitch and just lots of striking out). Around 1.58 million people tuned in live either on TV or on a stream to watch the Oklahoma vs. Florida Women's College World Series game which turned into a 17 inning-long game (the longest in a game in WCWS history).

The entire series itself averaged 1.72 million audience members per game. The men's college baseball World Series only averaged 462,000 viewers per game. There were more than 600 games available on ESPN networks last season, and although the official TV schedule hasn't been released yet, there's likely to be even more based on the rating success it achieved last year.

As many new coming fans to the game could attest, the more you watch, the more you'll appreciate the game and fall in love with the players. Softball's popularity is increasing, and if you want to get passionate about a new sport that isn't corrupt with scandal (yet) and supports women in college athletics, this is the opportunity for you.

We want our 6 peat. Every early morning lift, every set of bleachers, every extra hitting session, every ground ball, it's all coming down to this coming season, and since there's no only half of the basketball season left to distract you in the Spring Semester, we've got you covered for the rest of your athletic entertainment. We're going to have a better winning percentage than our football team did, and I promise you girls hit plenty of dingers too.

You can see our 2018 Spring schedule here, and learn more about our team here.

Go Rams!