The Maryland softball team announced the additions of two new assistant coaches Tuesday. Tori Tyson will coach the Terps’ pitchers and Victoria Hayward enters as a batting coach.
The pairing replaces outgoing coaches Lisa Carey and Lisa Norris, who exited their posts in early June. Coach Julie Wright hired Carey and Norris in 2015.
Tyson inherits a Terps pitching staff losing starters Hannah Dewey and Madison Martin. In her two seasons at Cal State Fullerton, Tyson led the team’s pitchers to throw 46 complete games and 24 shutouts while keeping the team ERA under 2.70.
In Tyson’s first season for the Titans, she coached pitchers Sydney Golden and Desiree Ybarra to the Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year and Big West Pitcher of the Year awards, respectively. Pitcher Kelsey Kessler earned 2017 first team all-conference honors after pitching a 1.86 ERA en route to a 20-9 record.
Solid pitching from the Titans led to two consecutive NCAA Regional appearances and two Big West Conference Championships.
Last season, Maryland struggled in the circle with a 4.69 team ERA while allowing 34 home runs and 225 walks. The Titans, meanwhile, held opponents to 28 homers and 143 walks. Cal State Fullerton also tossed 342 strikeouts compared to Maryland’s 151.
Hayward joins the Terps after leading UMass to a second-place finish in the Atlantic 10 Conference, in which the Minutewomen hit .268 as a team, nine points higher than Maryland’s .259 team clip.
Maryland hit more homers (15) and triples (10) than UMass last year, but the Minutewomen’s 59 doubles outpaced the Terps’ 47. UMass and Maryland held slugging percentages in the .340s and were within one walk of each other.
Hayward also was a graduate assistant at LSU in 2015. The Tigers finished the season 52-14 and took third place at the Women’s College World Series. As a result, Hayward was part of a staff which was named the Division I South Region Staff of the Year by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
Hayward began playing for the Canadian Senior National Team at 16, making her the youngest player to make the team. Since then, she has won six medals in international competitions as an outfielder.
At the University of Washington, she was named to four All-Pac-12 teams and was a 2014 All-American as she helped the Huskies to four NCAA Regional Championships. She finished her career with a .351 batting average, 12th in Huskies history.