Infielders Skylynne Ellazar and Brigette Nordberg create a fearsome duo at the top of the Maryland softball lineup, hitting .348 and .286, respectively.
No other starter is hitting better than .244, however, and the team as a whole is hitting .229 this season. The search for a third offensive threat has been one of the biggest struggles for coach Julie Wright’s squad, which has already improved on its win total from last season despite a 30-point drop in batting average.
Maryland hopes catcher Anna Kufta and outfielder Amanda Brashear — two of the team’s best hitters last season — can rediscover their old form to help rescue the Big Ten’s second-worst offense and carry the momentum from its first conference series victory since 2016.
“We’re working on passing the bat as a team” Nordberg said. “I have no doubt we’ll be able to pull that out soon because we’re almost there.”
[Read more: Maryland softball wins its first Big Ten series since 2016 with 4-3 victory vs. Penn State]
As freshmen last season, Brashear led the team with a .304 batting average and Kufta had a team-high six home runs and 26 RBIs.
Both have struggled through sophomore slumps this year. Brashear is hitting .244 and Kufta has homered just once, while her average has dropped 92 points.
In the first weekend of March in Louisville, Brashear went 8-16 with 3 RBIs, including a walk-off single. The next weekend in the team’s first home games, Brashear regressed, going 2-13. That tally included three times where she was called out for leaving the box early on the running start to her swing.
Kufta, meanwhile, is coming off her best weekend of the season. She raised her batting average by 36 points and drove in four runs, giving her 11 RBIs on the season.
“Anna Kufta is a good hitter who hasn’t been swinging at good pitches,” Wright said.
Injuries have limited outfielder Destiney Henderson to five games off the bench so far, but she hit .255 and started frequently last season, which would be a welcome jolt to the Terps offense.
Other than that trio, first baseman Jacqui Pascual has emerged as a sporadic offensive threat after playing just five games last season. But she’s also been limited by injuries.
The offense relying so heavily on two players has caused difficulty when Maryland has played highly-ranked opponents. Nordberg and Ellazar have combined for over a quarter of the team’s walks. Without other threatening hitters, opposing pitchers are able to pitch around the Terps top two hitters, exposing the rest of the lineup.
Wright is remaining patient, however, believing her lineup — which is often made up of a majority of underclassmen — will turn it around in the future.
“The one thing about the process of a young team is you can’t cheat it,” Wright said. “No matter how much you want to speed it up, it’s going to be their process.”
