Catcher Shannon Bustillos swings at a pitch during the Terp’s 8-6 win over Penn State on April 17, 2015.
More than four years ago, catcher Shannon Bustillos took the field in Boca Raton, Florida, against Michigan in her second career game in a Terrapins softball uniform. Of the seven current Terps seniors, she was the only one that saw action.
Now, Bustillos and the six other seniors are entering their last series at Maryland Softball Stadium, which will also come against No. 4 Michigan.
The seniors have helped turn around the program under first-year head coach Courtney Scott Deifel, and their final home series will give them chance to prove how far they’ve come against one of the top teams in the country.
“It’s going to be a little bit more emotional,” Bustillos said.
While only three of the seven seniors have been with the Terps for all four years, the team is expecting a special weekend.
“You always want to fight for your seniors, and being seniors, you always want to fight even more,” senior pitcher Kaitlyn Schmeiser said. “The good thing is it’s not the end of the season, either.”
Regardless of how the Terps fare against the Wolverines, they will head to Michigan State next weekend to conclude the regular season. Plus, the Terps, who are tied for seventh in the conference standings, control their own destiny to reach the field of 12 in the Big Ten tournament.
Michigan will be the highest-ranked opponent they have faced this season, but the Terps aren’t concerned.
“We just need to go out and play and not really worry about who we’re playing,” Schmeiser said. “They’ve dropped games just like anybody else has, so why not us?”
The Terps have faced four different teams that were ranked at the time of their games: then-No. 22 Tulsa, No. 24 Notre Dame, No. 15 Missouri and No. 13 UCF. While they’ve gone 0-4 in those contests, the Terps lost three of them by two runs or fewer and have kept each game within four runs.
“Michigan’s going to be good for us,” Scott Deifel said. “We’ll be able to see how we match up with a top-level team; we just really want to focus on finishing strong and getting in the Big Ten tournament.”
Of Michigan’s six losses, two of them have come at the hands of No. 1 Florida. The others came against Kent State, Minnesota and Iowa, a team that the Terps beat in two out of three games.
Now tonight, against the team Bustillos played in her second career game, the seniors will have a chance to earn their first wins over a ranked foe this season.
“We’re not looking at the name across the chest; we’re just playing the game like we know how,” Bustillos said. “Could be the No. 1 team in the nation, could be the last team in Division I softball, and we’re still going to go out there and fight every pitch.”
