The Maryland softball team scored six runs in the fifth inning to take an 11-2 lead over Florida Atlantic on Friday, but the game was called a no contest in the bottom of the fifth due to rain, ending the opening day of the Carolina Classic in disappointing fashion.
The Terps dropped the first game of Friday’s doubleheader in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 5-2 to George Washington in the morning. They seemed on the brink of splitting Friday’s contests before the nightcap was called off.
The Terps (9-7) clubbed three home runs on the day, but two came in the second game’s fifth inning, wiping them away. Infielder Taylor Okada, who leads the team with a .431 batting average, crushed a two-run homer against George Washington to put the Terps on the board in the seventh inning, but that was the only scoring Maryland could manage.
George Washington pitcher Sierra Lange allowed nine hits and two runs in seven innings, adding two strikeouts. Lange minimized the damage against a team that posted 12 runs in the final outing of last weekend’s tournament, stranding 10 Terps on base Friday.
The bats came alive in Maryland’s second game against Florida Atlantic. The Terps built a nine-run lead and pitcher Sami Main surrendered just two runs in the circle. Main allowed four hits in 4 ⅓ innings and walked seven other batters. Main walked in one run in the second and gave up another on an RBI single, but allowed just one hit through the next 2 ⅓ innings.
Both shortstop Bailey Boyd and infielder Anna Kufta homered in the fifth inning to extend Maryland’s lead. Though the statistics are nullified, Kufta went 3-for-3 at bat, scored three times and recorded four RBIs in the second game after getting only one hit on George Washington.
Okada in the lead-off position went 5-for-8 on the day, and it was her two-run single in the top of the fifth that started the Terps’ six-run rally before rain prevented the game from finishing.
After opening last weekend’s tournament in California with a dud, Maryland had wanted to come out of the gates faster this time around. Instead, the Terps struggled to get going once more against Florida Atlantic in the opener, and pitcher Sydney Golden fell to 6-3 on the year after allowing four earned runs in 3 ⅔ innings.
While it seemed Maryland would have a chance to bounce back immediately, officials called the nightcap a no contest, despite coach Julie Wright’s side holding an 11-2 lead in the fifth inning. The Terps will face North Carolina in their lone game Saturday.
