Terrapins softball infielder Skylynne Ellazar said last weekend that each time the team takes a step forward in one area, they seem to stumble in another.
So while the Terps showed improvement at the plate in their Friday night matchup with Michigan State — notching eight hits — ace pitcher Madison Martin faltered, resulting in a 12-3 loss.
After coach Julie Wright criticized her squad for its lack of plate aggressiveness last weekend, she made the players watch their hitting failures on film during practice.
She said the players became angry when they saw their repeated mistakes, and they responded by swinging early in the count against Michigan State pitcher Dani Goranson in the first inning.
“We put our plan into action and it really showed,” Ellazar said.
That resulted in some of the hardest hit balls of the season — infielder Lindsey Schmeiser roped a one-out single to left, and one batter later, Ellazar blasted a long two-run home run over the right-field fence. There were also a number of hard hit foul balls in the inning.
But the Terps (9-27, 1-6 Big Ten) couldn’t maintain their offensive momentum after the first frame, failing to score another run until the fifth.
Still, Wright was pleased with the offensive showing and said there would be “more to come” during the final two games of the series.
Michigan State (20-17, 2-5 Big Ten) used the long ball to come back against pitcher Madison Martin, taking the lead in the middle innings with a pair of two-out, two-run homers. Martin entered the contest with a team-best 3.54 ERA, but pitched 4.2 innings and allowed six runs.
Following the loss, Martin said she “just didn’t make the adjustments I needed to make” after the Spartans settled in at the plate.
“I was just missing on some pitches, and they were capitalizing on my mistakes,” Martin added.
After the Spartans hit their third blast of the game in the sixth off relief pitcher Brenna Nation, the Terps defense fell apart. With a full count and a runner on first, Nation induced three consecutive pop ups. None of them were caught.
The first one was lofted behind home plate and bounced out of catcher Kristina Dillard’s glove. The second evaded Ellazar in foul territory near third base. And the third bounced between outfielders Kylie Datil and Sarah Calta in right-center field.
One batter later, infielder Jordan Aughinbaugh added to the team’s fielding woes by botching a ground ball to first base. The Spartans took advantage of the errors and scored six runs in the frame to jump ahead 12-3.
When the Terps failed to respond in the bottom of the inning, the Spartans captured the victory via the run rule.
“We just didn’t complete some plays we probably needed to complete,” Wright said. “We gave away some extra outs that inning and that hurt us.”
Though Wright has sometimes criticized the effort of her players this season, she said the loss was not related to the team’s mental approach, giving her confidence for its next two games.
“I thought their energy was great the whole game,” she said. “Our hitters were working on adjusting to [relief pitcher Kristina Zalewski], and I think now we have a good game plan for the rest of the series.”
