May 30, 2015 5 min read

Allyson Fournier stood along the third-base foul line during Friday night’s pregame player introductions and listened as the public address announcer mentioned the college programs that produced each Pennsylvania Rebellion player.

It sounded like a roll call of the top NCAA softball teams: Arizona State, Florida State, North Carolina, Auburn, Washington, South Carolina, etc.

There was one school that didn’t seem to fit with the powerhouse programs: Tufts.

For the record, that’s an NCAA Division III school near Boston. Tufts is where Fournier, a right-handed pitcher who signed Friday afternoon with the Rebellion, played her college softball.

“I noticed that during the introductions. That’s when I had to ask myself, ‘Why am I here?'” said Fournier, who made the unlikely jump from nonscholarship Division III to softball at its highest level in the United States in less than a week.

The Akron Racers, the Rebellion’s opponent in the opening game of Saturday night’s doubleheader, probably wish Fournier was anywhere but at Consol Energy Park. Fournier pitched two scoreless innings of relief and was the winning pitcher in the Rebellion’s 6-3 victory.

The Rebellion settled for a split as they were shut out by the Chicago Bandits, 5-0, for the second consecutive day in the nightcap. The three teams will play another doubleheader today with the Rebellion hosting Chicago at 2:35 p.m. and Akron in the second contest.

The win against Akron capped what has been an unlikely but memorable six days for Fournier.

Last Monday, she pitched Tufts to its third consecutive Division III national championship that capped a 51-0 season for the Jumbos. On Thursday night, Fournier received a phone call from her college coach, who said the Rebellion wanted to sign her and that she needed to get a flight to Pittsburgh because the NPF season opened the next day.

“I had to pack just about everything I own in one night. My flight landed at 1 p.m. Friday,” said Fournier, a native of South Windsor, Conn.

By 7 p.m. she had signed her first professional contract and was in a Rebellion uniform. By Saturday evening, she had made professional hitters look as helpless as those Division III batters she faced at Tufts, where she had a 63-1 record over the last two seasons. Fournier was 35-0 this year with 422 strikeouts (an average of 14 per game) and a mind-boggling 0.20 ERA. Fournier’s four-year career record was 111-5 and her ERA in her worst season was only 0.70.

“This whole week has been insane,” Fournier said. “I can’t believe I’m here.”

Fournier entered the Akron game with the score tied in the fourth inning. Rebellion starting pitcher Dallas Escobedo had thrown three innings of two-hit ball.

It was not the best situation for a nervous rookie to make her debut.

“I think her heart was beating through her shirt,” Rebellion manager Craig Montvidas said.

“I usually don’t get nervous, but today was a bit much,” Fournier admitted.

Fournier gave up two hits and struck out two, showing a 64 mph fastball and impressive changeup. She was the beneficiary of the Rebellion’s five-run fifth inning that made her the winning pitcher in her pro debut.

“We wanted to draft her but we didn’t think anybody else was going to pick her, so we decided to wait and sign her after the college season,” Montvidas explained.

Fournier knows the jump from Division III to the NPF is steep. Even the most successful major college pitchers have struggled while making the transition. One example is of this is Escobedo, who was the NPF’s No. 1 overall draft pick last year after having a record-setting career at Arizona State. Escobedo had a 1-11 record in her first pro season.

“We haven’t even talked yet about what my role will be,” Fournier said. “I guess they’ll work me in, give me some innings in relief.”

Fournier pitched again against Chicago, throwing 1 2/3 innings of relief. She gave up one hit, two walks and one run. She also struck out a batter.

Alexa Peterson’s two-run double capped the five-run fifth against Akron. The Racers scored three runs in the sixth off reliever Bryana Walker, but Samie Garcia’s single in the bottom of the sixth scored Whitney Arion with an insurance run for Pennsylvania. Garcia also drove in a run in the fifth inning.

Lefty pitcher Angel Bunner got the final three outs for a save.

Chicago’s Sara Moulton pitched a seven-hit shutout in the second game. She struck out five and was backed by the Bandits’ four-run third inning that included a walk, hits batsman and error. The Rebellion outhit the Bandits 7-4.

Emma Johnson, a rookie from Kent State, started at pitcher for the Rebellion and gave up four runs (three earned) in 2 1/3 innings.

Though his team has a 1-2 record and has been shut out twice by Chicago, Montvidas says he’s seen some positive performances.

“One of our goals is we wanted to cut down on our strikeouts and we’ve been making better contact,” he said. “I think we have more speed and people are getting used to that. When we have the opportunity, we have to put the pressure on the defense. We’re not making a whole lot of errors. We just have to be more consistent. You can see our pitchers have been inconsistent from game to game and they’re pitching from behind int he count too often.”