Though two of the Terrapins softball team’s games in the Oklahoma Invitational were against No. 13 Oklahoma, coach Julie Wright felt her players should have come away with a better record than 1-4.

She said that if the Terps had competed consistently throughout the weekend they “would have taken three games.”

For much of the season, the Terps have failed to pitch and hit well at the same time, and that issue was apparent once again in the invitational.

After an 11-2 defeat to Saint Louis to open the tournament, the Terps offense played well on Friday afternoon against Brigham Young. Infielder Skylynne Ellazar went 2-for-3 and launched a third-inning home run to get the team on the board. She also hit an RBI double.

But pitching was a problem in the contest, and despite scoring four times, the Terps lost 7-4.

The Terps had a brief reprieve from their struggles on Saturday morning.

Infielder Emily Libero hit a grand slam, catcher Kristina Dillard added a two-run home run, and pitcher Brenna Nation threw a no-hitter for a dominating 8-0 win over Saint Louis.

But the Terps couldn’t sustain the momentum, and in the final two games of the invitational, they were outscored, 22-2, by Oklahoma.

In many respects, Wright said, the Sooners presented the model of excellence that she wants her program to strive for.

“We hope to build something similar,” she said.

Wright, who has emphasized the importance of aggressive baserunning, was impressed with the way the Sooners performed hit-and-runs and squeeze bunt plays.

“We struggled a little against that,” Wright said. “It was nice for our defense to see that so we can grow from there.”

The pitching staff also had problems against the Sooners, who exploded for a six-run sixth inning in their 11-2 win Saturday and five-run sixth in their 11-0 victory Sunday. They hit four home runs in the two games.

“Oklahoma was tough,” said Nation, who allowed seven earned runs in 5.1 innings against the Sooners. “They are a very, very high-caliber hitting team. I think that it took all of our pitching staff to do as well as we could, but it’s a learning experience.”

Wright said while “it’s always fun playing in a competitive environment like we did in Oklahoma,” the team is still a work in progress and she hopes it can make necessary improvements in its competitive focus heading into next weekend.