The Maryland softball team had given up late leads in losses to Butler and Stephen F. Austin in the Missouri Tournament this past weekend.
Entering the sixth inning Sunday with a 1-0 lead over No. 24 Missouri, it fell behind again. The Tigers put together a seven-run frame, and the Terps had three outs to erase the deficit.
Maryland went on to complete an improbable comeback. The Terps scored six runs in the seventh and two more in extra innings to defeat Missouri, 9-8, for their third win of the season. Still, the late-inning issues persisted.
“We’re putting together these five inning games or six inning games,” coach Julie Wright said, “but the other one or two innings are hurting us so badly that we’re losing the game.”
[Read more: Maryland softball defeats No. 24 Missouri, 9-8, behind a six-run seventh inning]
Against Butler on Friday, Maryland lost a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning. The Bulldogs put a three spot on the board, the first two coming off two singles and a double. Wright replaced pitcher Hannah Dewey with pitcher Madison Martin, who allowed another run before working out of the inning. Down, 3-2, in the seventh, Maryland’s batters went down in order.
Stephen F. Austin secured a 5-4 walk-off win Saturday after a four-run final frame. In the seventh, the Ladyjacks knocked Martin out of the game with two doubles and a walk. Pitcher Ari Jarvis stepped into the circle to close the game out, but an error and two more base on balls tied the score before a hit batter sealed Maryland’s defeat.
In the past, Wright has said it’s the players’ responsibility to make sure they they’re mentally prepared. She tries to replicate pressure situations in practice so the games “seem easy.”
Sunday, the Terps put together a strong five innings against Missouri. But in the bottom of the sixth, Martin gave up a leadoff double. An RBI single a few batters later prompted Wright to insert Dewey, and she gave up six more runs, including a three-run blast.
This time, though, the Terps responded. The Terps’ first two runs came on a wild pitch and an error, and catcher Kristina Dillard followed with a two-RBI double. The Tigers lead was just 7-5.
“We got lucky on a couple of those early baserunners in that inning, with a couple Missouri mistakes,” Wright said. “But when Kristina got up there — who has been not herself at the plate, been struggling just a little bit — and hit that ball the way she did, I thought, ‘Okay, this is going to ignite us a little bit and we’ll see where it goes.'”
Two more singles followed to tie the game. In extra innings, the Terps scored one run in both the eighth and the ninth to take a 9-8 lead.
And after giving up three sixth-inning leads in five games, Maryland shut down Missouri’s final comeback attempt to secure its second top-25 win.
“It’s their job to make this right, and they are very focused on doing that,” Wright said. “They haven’t been happy with the way they’ve been playing, and they were mad and they were going to go down fighting hard, which I was very proud to see.”
