The Maryland softball team struggled to drive in runs against Florida International, Northwestern State and Florida A&M in the first three games of the Aquafina Invitational this weekend. Then, against the top team in the nation, the offense clicked.
The Terps scored as many runs – four – as they had in the past three games combined to beat No. 1 Florida, 4-2, on Saturday. Maryland started the year with eight losses before the upset over the Gators.
“We weren’t really that far away from being a good team, we just kind of got ourselves into a funk that we kind of made bigger than what it was,” coach Julie Wright said.
“We just got good pitching, starting pitcher, closing pitching and we hit in between it,” Wright added. “So really, that’s all we needed to do, and that’s what we did, and it got us a huge win.”
Against Northwestern State on Friday, Maryland managed to drive in one run from two bases loaded situations and stranded at least one runner in each of the six innings.
In the 6-1 loss to FIU, the 13-2 loss to Northwestern State, and the 5-1 loss to Florida A&M, Maryland stranded 26 runners and hit a combined .150 with runners in scoring position.
Against the Gators, the Terps made limited opportunities count. While still stranding seven runners, Maryland hit .500 with runners in scoring position.
“This is the first game this weekend we felt connected as a team — pitching staff and defense and offense,” pitcher Hannah Dewey said of the Florida victory, when she pitched more than five innings and allowed one earned run. “We got runners on, moved them over and got them in when we needed them.”
Maryland had one hit entering the fourth inning, trailing Florida, 2-0. But after a leadoff single from infielder Skylynne Ellazar, the lineup started rolling.
Instead of aiming to tie the game with a blast, infielder Anna Kufta moved Ellazar to second with a sacrifice bunt. That led to catcher Kristina Dillard’s RBI-double, and the Terps scored two more runs with a sacrifice fly and an infield single.
Kufta leads the Terps with three home runs on the season. The freshman is one of the lone power options on a team in which last year’s leading long ball hitter, Lindsey Schmeiser, graduated with five homers.
“That’s all we really tried to do, put the ball in play and let the ball fall where it does, let them make errors or make it hard for them to make plays on us,” pitcher Madison Martin said. “We just put the ball in play and trusted the process, and were the team that we are. We didn’t try to be anyone else or try to do anything too fancy.”
The Terps added another run in the fifth when Ellazar and Kufta led off with singles before Martin drove Ellazar home with an RBI single. Martin led the Terps with a 3-for-4 day at the plate, including a run and an RBI, before she earned the save with two innings pitched.
Ellazar and Kufta each logged two hits, rebounding from costly errors in the field the game before. Maryland was tied with Florida A&M entering the seventh inning, but three errors aided the Rattlers’ four-run frame, and led to the Terps’ 5-1 loss.
The Terps had three errors in the first three innings against the Gators too, but Wright’s emphasis on them throughout the week helped the Terps respond for a marquee win.
“It’s not about the mistake itself, it’s how you bounce back from them,” Dewey said. “If someone makes a mistake, they feel like they owe it in some other way to the team, and I think those people came up clutch in other situations.”
