Trinity Schlotterbeck had the chance to salvage a Maryland softball win in the bottom of the seventh inning, The Terps’ bats had been quiet all afternoon, but one swing could’ve tied a low-scoring 2-1 affair against Cal Baptist on Saturday in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
With a runner on second and two outs, Schlotterbeck swung on the first pitch she saw with the game hanging in the balance. She made contact, roping a Presley Hosick pitch into right field before sprinting toward first base.
But the ball landed directly into the glove of former Terp Merissa Borkowski, ending Maryland’s two-game winning streak and handing the team its first loss of the 2023 season, 2-1. A win would’ve given head coach Mark Montgomery’s squad its first 3-0 start since 2008.
Cal Baptist pitcher Jazmine Castaneda didn’t yield a Maryland hit in the first two innings, striking out two batters in the process. The Terps’ bats had cooled off substantially from Friday when Montgomery’s squad brought home double-digit runs in a 10-2 drubbing of BYU.
[Maryland softball breezes past BYU in five innings, 10-2]
The Terps’ first hit came in the top of the third, when Campbell Kline raced to first base after slapping a ground ball off the glove of a Lancers third-baseman for an infield single.
But after Madison Runyan’s foul ball plopped into the mitt of third baseman Karmyna Becerra, Sammi Woods grounded into a double play moments later, continuing the Terps’ early scoring drought.
Cal Baptist’s first offensive threat came in the bottom of the third inning, when two Maryland errors loaded the bases for the Lancers with two outs. Maya Martinez chopped an infield ball in the direction of Sammi Woods, who attempted a sidearm flick toward first base for the final out of the inning.
Instead, the ball sailed over the head of Mackense Greico, scoring two runs and igniting the Cal Baptist bench. It was one of five errors for the Terps on the day — Montgomery’s squad had yet to yield an error during its first 2-0 start since 2013.
[First inning outburst propels Maryland softball to season-opening win over Oregon, 7-3]
Greico halved Maryland’s deficit in the subsequent inning, slapping a single past the Lancers’ second baseman to score a sprinting Jaeda McFarland from second base. But the Terps’ woes continued as the game progressed.
Pitcher Courtney Wyche struggled in her first start of the 2023 season, fresh off a 14-7 junior campaign in 2022 that featured a career-high 139 strikeouts and career-low 1.95 ERA. The ace was pulled midway through the fourth inning following a botched underhand toss to first base after fielding a Natalie Elias bunt.
Kyra Pittman came on in her stead, keeping the Terps in the game by pitching out of back-to-back bases loaded jams in the fourth and fifth innings before Schlotterbeck entered the game in the sixth to close it out.
Schlotterbeck did her job on the mound, keeping the Lancers hitless in 1.2 innings pitched in an attempt to salvage a win in spite of a poor team performance at the plate. But as her line drive in the bottom of the seventh inning was snagged out of the air by Borkowski, the Terps’ undefeated start to their 2023 campaign came to an abrupt halt.
