An inconsistent pitching staff has plagued Maryland softball throughout the season. Terps pitchers rank last in the Big Ten in ERA and have given up 50 more earned runs than any other team in their conference.
With their struggles in the circle, the Terps must hit well to win games. They are 10-3 this season when supporting their pitching staff with five runs or more, but that mark drops to 1-27 when they fail to reach that number.
The Terps scored six runs in their series opener with Penn State on Friday but combined to score three runs in the next two games. So in Wednesday’s doubleheader against Rutgers, the Terps hope to provide enough scoring support to rebound from a three-game weekend sweep by the Nittany Lions.
Coach Julie Wright’s team will have the luxury of hitting against a Scarlet Knights pitching staff that holds the conference’s second-worst ERA and has allowed at least five runs in six consecutive contests. But outfielder Kylie Datil, who went just 2-for-11 against Penn State after collecting four hits the weekend before, isn’t taking her opponent lightly. She cautioned the team against being overconfident leading up to Wednesday, as it could create a level of complacency that hinders its preparation.
For the Terps (11-30, 3-9 Big Ten) to succeed Wednesday against a group of struggling pitchers, she said, they have to take advantage when their opponents miss inside the strike zone.
“If we take advantage of their mistakes early in the game, we should be able to hammer their pitchers,” Datil said. “And hopefully we can go through their whole bullpen.”
Maintaining offensive success over the course of an entire game has been an issue for the team, though. The Terps score more often in the opening frame than any other inning, but they often experience a drop-off later in the contest as opposing pitchers begin to settle in.
“We have a tendency to get those runs and then kind of go into chill mode for a couple of innings,” Datil said. “We have to make sure we keep our energy up.”
Catcher Kristina Dillard, who went 8-for-10 this past weekend, agreed that spark is crucial for the lineup to succeed. She’s confident that she can continue doing her part to help the team produce offensively, adding that the short turnaround between the weekend and Wednesday’s doubleheader has helped her stay locked in at the plate.
Wright described Maryland’s offensive game plan against the Scarlet Knights (18-26, 2-10) as “what we’ve been continually doing since Michigan State” two weekends ago. The Terps scored 22 runs in the three-game set en route to their first series win of the season.
During the series, Wright said, her hitters started being more aggressive at the plate, attacking pitches when they came through the strike zone. This is an area in which she believes they have made great strides in over the past couple of weeks.
Still, the Terps failed to secure a victory last weekend in what Wright called “winnable games.” The first-year coach noted her players were “very upset” about their recent defeats, so she hopes they can turn that frustration into a tenacious approach at the plate Wednesday.
“That was nice to see because you want that emotional reaction to things when they don’t go the way that you want them to,” Wright said.
