Maryland softball enters its weekend series against Indiana riding the momentum of its best offensive showing in more than two weeks.
The Terps finished their Wednesday double-header against Saint Francis with a come-from-behind 7-4 win, scoring six runs in the fifth inning. In order to maintain that level of play against the Hoosiers, they hope to be more consistent for entire games.
“I’m happy with the hitting, but I really want to see more of that inning to inning,” coach Julie Wright said. “Why make it so hard on ourselves?”
[Read more: Maryland softball splits doubleheader against St. Francis]
So far this season, Maryland hasn’t shown the ability to string together hits for more than a couple of innings. The Terps have scored five or more runs in a game just eight times this season and have not done so in back-to-back games since April 2017.
Before their second game against Saint Francis, the Terps had been abysmal offensively, scoring just four runs in five games. They received a spark from unexpected sources, as infielders Hannah Eslick and Sammie Stefan — both freshmen who don’t usually start — came through with RBI hits.
Eslick’s long two-run single gave Maryland the lead for good and started the scoring in the fifth.
“We tried to make small adjustments to get our barrels to the ball more,” Eslick said. “I just wanted to score some runs.”
Catcher Anna Kufta struggled early in the double-header, starting 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. But she delivered the knockout blow with a three-run homer in the fifth — just her second homer of the year after hitting six last season.
While Indiana is 15-24 overall, it’s on a hot streak in conference play coming into the series. The Hoosiers are 7-2 in the Big Ten and have allowed fewer than five runs in all but one of those nine games.
Indiana pitchers have 3.08 ERA, which is good for sixth in the Big Ten. Emily Goodin and Tara Trainer have combined to throw over half of the team’s innings and each have ERAs under 3.00.
“Indiana is playing great,” Wright said. “They have a great staff, they’re well coached and they’re a lot like us on paper, so I think it’s going to be fun.”
The Terps have the worst scoring offense in the Big Ten, which doesn’t bode well for them against the Hoosiers’ quality hurlers. Still, they hope their midweek success carries over into the conference matchup.
“We all made a commitment to swinging hard, and swinging and attacking at strikes,” Kufta said. “We’re just focusing on keeping the hitting going and building off what we had in the midweek.”
