Hannah Runk came to the plate in the bottom of the fourth looking to extend Maryland softball’s already-sizeable lead. Batting out of the bottom of the lineup, the freshman has not had many chances to impact games in her debut season.
But with a runner on first, Runk stepped through and swept an offering to left-center field and watched it soar over the fence. Runk’s first career home run was a two-run shot that powered the Terps’ hot start on offense in their Sunday afternoon victory.
Runk’s homer was one of three for Maryland that contributed to a 10-2 win over Fairfield in the Terps’ first game of their doubleheader Sunday. Sydney Lewis, Diamond Williams, and Runk each crushed two-run home runs, and five of Maryland’s 10 runs came in the fourth inning.
The Terps dominated Lafayette later Sunday, winning 8-0 and again ending the matchup early per the mercy rule.
Diamond Williams slugged another two-run homer in the fourth that gave Maryland a lead it never surrendered. Geneivie Ebaugh started in the circle and pitched her second career shutout and third complete game.
Lauren Karn started Courtney Wyche on the mound to shut down the Stags lineup in the opener Sunday, and she did just that for the first couple of batters. That changed with two outs.
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Fairfield’s Allie Bridgman stepped up to the plate with a runner on third and slammed Wyche’s pitch past centerfielder Jaeda McFarland’s head and over the fence. Bridgman, who hit her first career home run in the Stags’ 10 a.m. game against Bryant, knocked her second home run of the day in the afternoon game. The two-run blast put Fairfield up by two in the first frame.
It was the first home run Wyche allowed since Maryland’s 4-1 loss to Southeastern on Feb. 17.
The top of the Terps’ lineup responded. Leadoff hitter Megan Mikami opened the inning with a single through the right side, then Sammi Woods scored her on a ground out for Maryland’s first score.
Wyche kept Fairfield quiet with five consecutive strikeouts, carrying the Terps through the second and into the third inning.
Mikami, known for her aggressive baserunning, had a 100 percent success rate stealing bases entering Sunday. Her attempt to steal second in the bottom of the third failed her first unsuccessful attempt this year.
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After Diamond Williams followed that with a double, Sydney Lewis drove a ball to center field that ricocheted off the top of the fence and came back into play. A replay review deemed the ball hit the wall above the line, giving Lewis a two-run, go-ahead homer that gave the Terps the advantage going into the fourth.
Lewis, Maryland’s designated hitter, notched her first home run of the season earlier this week against Virginia. It brought in the Terps’ only two runs of the match Tuesday, contributing significantly to the win.
The bats stayed hot for the Terps going into the fourth inning, a frame bookended by a pair of two-run homers. Runk’s blast put Maryland up 5-2, and Williams’ home run gave her team an 8-2 advantage, the graduate student’s eighth home run this season. In total, five runs and four hits highlighted an explosive fourth inning.
Wyche continued to be a dominant force on the mound. She totaled 11 strikeouts, tying her season high that she set in the nine inning matchup on March 8 against Boston College.
In the bottom of the sixth, Mikami hit a triple to bring home a runner and inch the Terps up to nine runs. In the next at-bat, McFarland hit a walk-off RBI double for Maryland’s 10th run that ended the contest in a mercy rule.
