Riverside native Sydney Golden looked right at home pitching a shutout against UNLV in Maryland softball’s first matchup Saturday.
The senior scattered six hits and two walks as the Terps’ offense had another busy seventh inning to win 5-0.
But Maryland’s pitching staff was unable to stop UC Riverside’s firepower in the second matchup of doubleheader at the Amy S. Harrison Classic, falling to the Highlanders 7-2.
Facing a powerful UNLV (10-3) squad, Maryland pulled ahead early and tacked on insurance runs late to put a stamp on its second win of the tournament.
The Terps took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on RBI singles from shortstop Bailey Boyd and first baseman Taylor Wilson. After leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, Golden allowed just three hits the rest of the way, shutting down any offense from the Rebels in the circle.
Center fielder JoJo McRae opened up the third inning with a single to second base, and after advancing to second, came around on a single from infielder Anna Kufta to put Maryland up 3-0.
Golden cleaned up on her end by not allowing the Highlanders any hits from the fourth inning to the sixth, and once the seventh inning rolled around, it was all Terps.
Against UC Riverside (4-8) on Friday, Maryland (8-6) put across eight runs in the seventh inning to come back from a three-run deficit. In the Terps’ rematch with the Highlanders, though, they were unable to stage a comeback as they had in their first meeting.
Maryland struck first and put a run on the board after Okada drove a lead-off triple to right center and scored on a Kufta single, the junior’s 18th RBI of the season.
Right-hander Kiana Carr started for the Terps, but after walking five hitters and allowing three runs in the first inning, the transfer from Phoenix Community College was replaced by Sami Main.
Main faced a similar fate, giving up three runs in three innings pitched and was replaced by Amelia Jarecke in the bottom of the fifth when UC Riverside took a 6-2 lead.
Though the freshman started out strong with a strikeout, the Highlanders were able to score one more run to seal the 7-2 win in the rematch.
The Terps will close out the tournament with a rematch against Portland State, who beat them 13-8 in the tournament-opener, on Sunday at noon.
