After the Maryland softball team lost by nine to Michigan State on Friday, coach Julie Wright kept calm. She added there would be “more to come,” from the Terps offense in the final two games of the series.
Blowout losses often make Wright visibly upset, so her demeanor after the run-rule defeat to the Spartans was noteworthy. She said the team was finally listening to her message on hitting and had showed aggressiveness at the plate despite the loss.
The Terps put together two of their best offensive performances of the season during their Sunday doubleheader, notching 24 hits across wins of 10-2 and 9-8. It marked Maryland’s first winning streak of the season.
The key to the first game of the doubleheader – Maryland’s first run-rule victory since March 12 – was a balanced offensive attack. Four players had two-hit games and the team drew six walks.
Outfielder Kylie Datil provided the highlight of the win with a fifth-inning homer, prompting the Terps to rush out onto the field after her home run trot. Perhaps no one in the celebratory mob was happier than pitcher Brenna Nation, who leapt up and down with a grin on her face as she waited for Datil to finish rounding the bases.
Nation was solid in the pitching circle. She threw 5.1 innings and gave up just two runs to earn her fourth win of the season.
The second game of the doubleheader began with a scary moment. Infielder Skylynne Ellazar, who leads the team in hitting, was injured by an aggressive slide at third base in the first inning. She had to exit the game and sat in the dugout with ice on her knee for the remainder of the contest as infielder Emily Libero replaced her.
The Spartans jumped ahead 3-0 in the first frame, but the Terps answered with five runs in the bottom half. The crucial hit of the rally came off the bat of catcher Kristina Dillard, who ripped a two-run single to right-center field following a long at-bat.
Maryland took a 7-3 lead into the fourth inning, but pitcher Madison Martin faltered, giving up two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth.
Nation, who came in as a reliever in the sixth, allowed two more runs and put two runners on base. She limited the damage, though, with an inning-ending strikeout that incited Dillard to pump her fist.
Still, the Spartans tied the game at eight with a sixth inning outburst. But the Terps won it in the bottom of the seventh on a bases-loaded hit by a pitch from Libero.
CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story said infielder Emily Libero won the game with a hit. She won the game by getting hit by a pitch. The updated story reflects the correction.
