As she walked to the plate in a March 20 contest against North Florida, Terrapin softball infielder Nadine Blackie had no idea playing it safe would put her in harm’s way.
Pulling her bat back after a bunt attempt, Blackie was cracked in the hand by the ball, breaking a bone in her ring finger.
“By the time I got down to first base, it was like a glove on my hand,” Blackie said. “It had already started to swell.”
After nearly a month on the sideline, Blackie is finally back in the lineup as the Terps (31-19) close out their home schedule against Longwood (35-15) in a doubleheader tomorrow. A key cog in the team’s offense, the Terps’ run production sputtered in her absence.
The inactive stint was painful for Blackie — and not just in her hand. The senior missed crucial games during the Terps’ NCAA Tournament push, unable to help the offense as it struggled to push runs across the plate.
“Frustrating,” Blackie said of the ordeal. “[I] just had to do whatever I could to help the team. … Just try to pick swings apart and help pick pitchers apart of the other team. Helping people with their swings. Cheering hard.”
The Terps’ series finale against Virginia Tech on April 11, the team’s Senior Day, was especially tough for Blackie to miss. Her No. 9 covered the stretch of outfield right behind the first base bag she had become accustomed to manning, and her walk onto the infield to receive a framed uniform from coach Laura Watten in the pregame ceremony was a welcome but fleeting return to the field for Blackie.
But after that brief moment of celebration, she returned to the dugout, where she had spent the previous 16 games.
“Oh my gosh,” Blackie said. “I was hurting so bad.”
“Talking to her on Senior Day, it was really hard,” Watten said. “I just told her, ‘Don’t throw it away, you just need to stay focused and do the best you can do with being on the bench right now and realize that when you come back in, you’ll make it worth it, and you’ll be a part of keeping your senior year going as long as you can.'”
For a while, the Terps feared Blackie’s career was over. The hand injury seemed as though it wouldn’t heal in time for her .307 career average to factor into how the Terps fared in the season’s homestretch. But when her health returned, so too did her optimism.
“I was just so excited,” Blackie said. “I was counting down. I was like, ‘Two days, two days until I see the doctor.'”
Blackie is batting .353 in the eight games since her return to the lineup April 17 against North Carolina. The Terps have won six of those games.
“It’s great,” Blackie said. “It’s senior year, so [I’m] trying to go out with a bang.”
With only a handful of games remaining before the ACC Tournament and then possibly the NCAA Tournament, Blackie’s bat in the lineup could make an average offense — and in turn, the Terps’ chances at a postseason berth — that much stronger.
“It would be amazing, especially for this team,” Blackie said. “We’ve worked so hard, and I think we’re in the right place right now. We’re going in definitely the right direction. I’m excited to see what we can do.”
schneider@umdbk.com
