Maryland softball entered Sunday with a chance at its first Big Ten series win of the season, having split the opening two games with Ohio State earlier in the weekend.
Unfortunately for the Terps, the rubber match looked a lot more like Saturday’s blowout loss than Friday’s close victory.
The Buckeyes scored in five of the seven innings Sunday, opening a 6-0 lead early and adding on five more in the final frame for a 15-3 win.
“There is some adjusting that we didn’t do,” coach Julie Wright said. “But when games kind of get away from you, it’s really easy to lose focus in moments where you probably shouldn’t be.”
Trailing 6-0, Maryland began chipping away at Ohio State’s lead in the bottom of the third, scoring twice to make it a four-run deficit. But the Terps struggled at the plate all weekend, finishing the series with just 12 hits.
“The Ohio State pitchers were really keeping the ball down and really not letting it get on the plate,” second baseman Regan Kerr said. “But we should have been adjusting, and we weren’t.”
Third baseman Sammie Stefan smashed her fifth homer of the season in the fourth inning, but that was the Terps’ last run of the game, while the Buckeyes added eight more in the final three frames.
Maryland had captured its first Big Ten win Friday in a 3-2 pitcher’s duel, and it would have required similar performances in the circle in order to win Saturday and Sunday. But in the second game of the series, Ohio State used a five-run second inning to power a 10-1 run-rule win, and the Buckeyes picked up where they left off Sunday.
The visitors scored two runs in the top of the second on a two-RBI double to left field from third baseman Ashley Prange. With a 2-0 lead, solid pitching from right-hander Lauren Rice, who had three strikeouts through two innings, kept the Terps off the board.
The next inning, the Buckeyes packed on another three runs on four hits against starter Kiana Carr, and Wright made a pitching change with a runner on second and two outs.
Right-hander Amelia Jarecke walked both batters she faced on four pitches, though, and Wright went back to Carr. After forcing in a run with a hit by pitch, Carr got a ground out to end the inning.
“They just capitalized on situations when they got runners in scoring position,” Stefan said.
Kerr got a leadoff walk in the bottom of the third, and after advancing to third on wild pitches, came home on a single from center fielder JoJo McRae. McRae then scored the Terps’ second run after a single up the middle from designated player Anna Kufta.
The Terps stranded 18 runners over the course of the weekend, a problem Wright wants to tackle immediately along with limiting their opponents’ walks.
“Ohio State definitely took more of their opportunities,” Kerr said. “They were getting runners on base and they were scoring those runners, and we leaving our runners stranded.”
The Buckeyes got one back in the top of the fourth, but catcher Gracie Voulgaris tagged out second baseman Emily Clark after a rundown to prevent the Buckeyes from extending their lead.
Stefan kept the Terps in the game, bombing a solo homer over the center field fence to cut the deficit to 7-3, but Ohio State continued the attack in the fifth.
Prange drove a triple to right field, just out of reach of right fielder Amanda Brashear, who collided with the fence and had to leave the game.
“We didn’t have one more person to use in this game,” Wright said. “If someone else went down, there was nothing else we could do.”
After play resumed, the Buckeyes hit back-to-back singles to make it a 9-3 lead, then capped off the inning with a sacrifice fly to go up seven runs on the Terps, who once again struggled to hit Rice.
“[Rice] did a great job at commanding the zone, putting the ball in places it was tough to hit,” Stefan said.
In five-plus innings, Rice allowed three runs on six hits and struck out five. Right-hander Morgan Ray, who also pitched in Friday’s matchup, came into the circle after the Terps put two runners on with nobody out in the sixth, and she got a pair of ground balls and a strikeout to strand runners on second and third.
Main took to the circle to try and save the Terps’ chances of a late comeback, but she wasn’t fooling anybody in the seventh inning. Ohio State scored five runs on six hits, putting the game completely out of reach and securing a 15-3 win in the rubber match.
“They battled hard, honestly,” Wright said. “If we would have done maybe a little bit more defensively and on the mound … this game could have looked a little different.”
