It has been difficult for the Maryland softball team to find offseason stability with three coaches in the past four years. But head coach Julie Wright and the Terps are entering Wright’s second season in College Park, and with experience comes heightened expectations.
The team features young players, but Wright is looking for the Terps to improve every series. That starts at the Texas Invitational this weekend against No. 16 Minnesota, Colorado State and Texas. “We’re still building, and we’re still trying to figure out who we are, this team,” Wright said. “We’ll know a lot after the first weekend, which we need.”
This is the first time senior catcher and infielder Kristina Dillard has had the same coach in consecutive seasons.
“Having that second year, we know what to expect, what the standards are, what the demand is,” Dillard said. “It’s been a lot easier since day one coming back [knowing] what we need to do.”
The transition after losing three key players from last year may not be as easy, but the team believes it can fill the voids. Middle infield duo Lindsey Schmeiser and Corey Schwartz graduated, along with pitcher Brenna Nation.
“We got some young kids stepping up,” Wright said. “We are probably a little lean, no doubt, in the circle, but they’re working hard. We’ve got a nice senior catcher here who’s guiding them.”
Without Nation, Wright is deciding to pitch by committee. Nation pitched 131 innings, 44 more innings than redshirt senior pitcher Madison Martin, the next closest. Nation also threw six complete games. Martin and senior Hannah Dewey threw only one complete game each.
Having an experienced catcher such as Dillard behind the plate will help settle a young pitching staff, Wright said.
Freshman pitcher Lauren Graves is likely to see a lot of the mound this season as Dillard learns about her pitching style and helps her adjust to the college level.
Juli Strange and Skylynne Ellazar are replacing Schmeiser and Schwartz in the middle infield. Ellazar was voted team MVP after hitting a career-high .399 with a .458 on base percentage and .574 slugging percentage while scoring 32 runs. Her average is the third-best single-season average in Maryland history.
Before Strange’s injury last season, she played third base. When she went down, Ellazar filled in. Now, freshman Anna Kufta will play third as Strange slides to second base and Ellazar plays shortstop.
“I’m fully confident in Anna Kufta, she’s come from a championship team,” Dillard said of Kufta’s club national championship in 2016. “She’s done nothing but prove herself since she’s gotten here. I don’t care what class she’s in because she can do it.”
Kufta may not be the only freshman to make an immediate impact in College Park. In addition to Graves on the mound, freshmen Kassidy Cross, Amanda Brashear and Brigette Nordberg are in contention for the outfield spots.
“The only real difference is just experience,” outfielder Sarah Calta said of the freshmen. “I’ve been helped a lot by them because they bring in that new energy and that competition to make myself want to be better, too.”
Calta is eager to return from the torn ACL that forced her to miss the last eight games of the season. She was named second team All-Big Ten selection a year ago after playing in each of the first 44 games, hitting .331 with last year’s team-high eight stolen bases.
Calta was one of three players to hit above .300 last season, and Wright expects to lean on those veterans as her younger players adjust.
“It’ll be good for them to look to [the veterans] to know, ‘Okay, this is how we do it, this is how you prepare, this is what it looks like,'” Wright said. “It won’t seem so foreign to have guidance.”
