After losing to George Washington, the Terrapin softball team did its usual players-only huddle in the outfield and waited for its disturbed coach to come address them.
Coach Laura Watten had little to say to her team and told her players it was up to them to take the rest of the season seriously or not. Watten thought her players took the initiative to play with more intensity this weekend against Boston College, but the results were similar.
The Terps dropped two of three games to the Eagles and fell to 6-11 in the ACC. The Terps thumped the Eagles in the first game of the series, a 9-5 win in which they had six players with a multi-hit game, but their bats cooled off as they scored just six runs in the remaining two games – 8-5 and 4-1 losses.
“We started off strong and hit the ball real well,” Watten said. “I even thought we hit well today – we just hit it at people. We hit it hard, got tight and got frustrated, and that caused us to be less selective.”
But as the Terps’ bats made the trip to Boston College, their pitching and defense stayed at home.
With staff ace Crystal Crews sidelined with a viral infection, the Terps had to rely on the less-experienced trio of juniors Abbey Welch and Elyse Lucas and freshman Meredith Nelles. The three pitchers gave up a combined 17 runs in the three games.
“We didn’t have the depth in our staff that we needed against a good hitting Boston College team,” Watten said. “I thought we did well in the [pitching] circle in the third game, but we didn’t make enough plays.”
Contact reporter Mark Selig at mseligdbk@gmail.com.
