Lauren Karn raised her hand and started to walk out of the dugout in the top of the sixth inning. Courtney Wyche walked to the end of the circle signaling to Karn and pointing at the ground eager to stay in the game, which was her last in College Park. Karn abided.
Wyche just gave up two hits and three runs and loaded the bases. Her next pitch was wild, advancing the baserunners and bringing home the fourth run of the inning. She kept her composure and finished out the inning with a strikeout, but the damage was done.
“She was completely gassed… her velocities were down, she’s throwing out of the zone. But today’s kind of her day,” Karn said. And sometimes if you’re going to sink your ship, you’re going to sink it with your captain.”
A Mazie MacFarlane homer in the bottom of the sixth wasn’t enough to bring Maryland back, and the Terps (20-29, 5-15 Big Ten) lost the matchup to Purdue, 7-1. It marked their fifth straight conference series loss and kept Maryland at 12th in Big Ten standings, as Karn’s team remains on the cusp of making the Big Ten tournament.
After falling to Purdue 2-1 on Friday, Maryland finally broke its 11-game conference losing streak Saturday afternoon thanks to a pair of Michaela Jones home runs.
[Maryland softball collapses in the final inning, falls to Purdue, 2-1]
Jones opened the scoring with a homer in the second inning on Saturday. She finished it eight innings later with a two-run walk-off home run in the 10th to win it for the Terps.
Freshman Julia Shearer pitched 6.1 innings, striking out a career-high five batters. Wyche finished the game and earned the win with seven strikeouts over three innings.
Sunday marked Maryland’s final game in College Park for five graduate students and two seniors. Wyche started her last home game in the circle on Sunday.
Wyche put the Purdue lineup down quickly in the first but let up one hit in the second. With two runners in scoring position and no outs, Wyche struck out the next two batters, and the third flew out to right field, pulling Maryland out of the inning.
Maryland was aggressive at the plate and consistently swung at first pitches. The approach proved somewhat successful early on as the Terps notched three hits in three innings. The production came from the top of the lineup, as Jaeda McFarland and Megan Mikami put multiple runners in scoring positions, but no Terp crossed the plate until the sixth.
The game stayed scoreless heading into the fourth, as the pitcher’s duel commenced. Maryland continued to make contact and move the baserunners in the fourth but left two on-base to end the inning at the hands of Purdue’s defense.
[Maryland softball mercy rules Towson, 11-2]
The Boilermakers fielding was clean and efficient and prevented the Terps from getting into the scoring column. A diving catch from shortstop Jade Moy put out Mikami in the fifth.
Purdue broke through in the top of the sixth. Wyche fielded a hit to her and threw the ball behind her in hopes of grabbing the out at second, but the runner was safe and in scoring position. Tyrina Jones put the first run on the board with a single up the middle.
The Boilermaker’s lineup continued, and a single by Khloe Banks brought home two more runs. Wyche’s wild pitch scored the fourth run of the inning.
“Courtney gave us every single ounce of everything that she had. And we couldn’t ask her to have done any more on this field for us than she did this year,” Karn said. “Offensively we need to give her some run support to put her in a better position to pitch freely.”
Karn put Keira Bucher in the circle for the top of the seventh. Olivia McFadden hit a three-run home run over the left field fence with two outs, deepening Maryland’s deficit to six runs.
The Terps head to Wisconsin next weekend for their final series before the Big Ten tournament and a chance to solidify their berth into it.
“We still have a chance at making the tournament and once you get to the tournament you never know what can happen,” Karn said. “We only have one more weekend to play to be able to put ourselves in a position to do that.”
