As Virginia Tech came to College Park one final time yesterday, the Terrapins softball team still had high hopes its recent struggles would end with the start of conference play.
But the team’s woes only worsened this weekend, as the Terps lost three bouts with the Hokies, extending their losing streak to six games.
Coach Laura Watten said she sees the cause of her team’s recent slump as mental rather than physical.
“I just want to see mental toughness,” she said. “I want to see us go out and fight and be hungry.”
In the opening game of the series, the Terps (18-14, 0-3 ACC) fell, 5-0, as Virginia Tech ace Jasmin Harrell allowed only two hits in a complete-game shutout. In the second leg of the Saturday doubleheader, the Hokies (27-12, 6-2) won, 7-5, after the Terps were unable to answer two runs in the top of the sixth.
After pitching a combined nine innings in two games Saturday, senior pitcher Kendra Knight started the game for the Terps yesterday before being pulled after 6.2 innings. She allowed three runs in the top of the seventh in an eventual 5-1 loss.
Still, Knight was adamant that fatigue was not a factor with her performance.
“As athletes, we are conditioned to do this,” she said. “I just need to be stronger. That’s it.”
On Sunday, after allowing two runs in the first, the Terps’ ace settled nicely into the flow of the game, throwing five scoreless frames until the seventh. But she was still frustrated at the way she started and finished her outing.
“I need to be better for my team and stop them from scoring early and late in games,” Knight said. “It kind of sucks to hold them down in the middle but not stay strong in the beginning or end of games, so I need to get tougher and come out strong and then close out games.”
Watten mirrored Knight’s disappointment with the team’s late-game performance.
“In those innings, everybody is going to get tougher and everyone is going to get better and everyone is going to pour it on because you’re running out of time,” she said. “We have to be tougher both mentally and physically and we can’t let people surge on us.”
The team’s disappointing play over the past few weekends has made its roaring start to the season a fading memory. Since winning 10 of their first 12 games, the Terps have gone 8-12 and lost eight of their past 10. It won’t be any easier in conference play, but Knight believes the solution for the Terps lies in going back to those same winning roots.
“We need to remember what got us here as athletes,” she said. “We all know we’re great players, but I think we just forget it sometimes. We haven’t been winning, so it’s kind of hard to stay strong up top, but we need to remember why we got here and what we do well.”
popper@umdbk.com
