With Florida holding a 2-0 lead over the Maryland softball team Saturday, center fielder Amanda Brashear’s error gave the top-ranked Gators a base runner to start the third inning.
The Gators inserted freshman Jacqui Switzer, who entered the game with two stolen bases, on the base paths. Based on Switzer’s track record, Terps catcher Kristina Dillard anticipated her to take off for second.
Switzer was thrown out, Dillard’s first caught stealing of the season, in Maryland’s 4-2 upset win. After Dillard led the Big Ten in that category last season, the Terps expect more of the same from her as a senior moving forward.
“She’s great at reading the situation and knowing when it’s good, she’s going to get the girl out,” pitcher Madison Martin said. “Usually when she throws it, it has a pretty high percentage of getting the girl out. So, it’s pretty huge for us to have someone like that behind the plate, just so the runners know they have to kind of stay where they are.”
That throw helped clear the base paths, and pitcher Hannah Dewey induced a fly out and a groundout to end the frame. The Terps carried that momentum into the next inning, scoring three runs to take the lead. Dillard’s RBI-double drove in the first score.
Behind the plate, Dillard is “god-gifted by a strong arm,” said coach Julie Wright. From 2013 to 2015, the Big Ten’s success rate on steals hovered around 80 percent. Dillard threw out a conference-high 16 runners at a 25 percent success rate last season.
When Martin is in the circle, she’s learned to “just get out of the way” as Dillard attempts to pin down runners.
“Don’t get in the way of her and let her just do her thing,” Martin said. “Every now and then we’ll have a pitch out and then we’ll call the play, but usually it’s just her reading it and just make sure we read it in time to get out of the way.”
Dillard played all 52 games at catcher last season, and she’s been durable again this season, catching all but three innings over the team’s nine games. She doesn’t plan to sit out, either.
“Catching is something I love, so for me it comes pretty easily,” Dillard said. “I want to be back there, I want to win, I want to compete.”
To start the season, Dillard struggled to throw out runners. In the first eight games of the season, five runners successfully stole against Dillard. Wright included her catcher’s struggles in the “funk” her team was in. Before beating the Gators, Maryland was 0-8.
But in the Terps’ first win of the season, Dillard was relieved to throw out her first base runner.
“That first one’s always nice,” she said. “That’s one of my favorite parts of catching right there.”
