Mazie MacFarlane stepped up to the plate in the top of the ninth with two hits already on the day, needing another to push Maryland softball ahead in extra innings.
MacFarlane placed a 1-0 pitch into center field to score Megan Mikami from second base. MacFarlane provided the game-winning hit the Terps needed to top the Badgers.
Maryland defeated Wisconsin on Sunday in its regular season finale, 4-3, to secure a series sweep. The series victory helped the Terps extend their campaign into the postseason, clinching a spot in the Big Ten tournament. Maryland’s victory on Saturday earned it a conference tournament bid.
The Terps (23-29, 8-15 Big Ten) started off strong on Friday, scoring five runs in the third inning en route to a 12-2 win. The offensive explosion resumed on Saturday, as freshman Julia Shearer led Maryland both in the circle and behind the plate.
Shearer earned her second career win, pitching over six innings and seeing all but two of the Badgers’ hitters. She slammed her first home run of the season in the fourth inning to put the fifth run on the board for the Terps. Maryland held off Wisconsin (19-30, 8-15 Big Ten) with a 6-5 win.
[Maryland softball helps its Big Ten tournament chances with 12-2 win over Wisconsin]
Unlike in each of the first two games of the series, the Badgers scored first in the series finale. Skylar Sirdashney singled up the middle in the bottom of the third to score Alivia Bark for an early 1-0 lead.
Courtney Wyche, who pulled off a crucial win for the Terps on Friday, started in the circle again on Sunday. The lone damage against Wyche over the first five innings was Sirdashney’s RBI hit — she otherwise excelled. Wyche recorded eight strikeouts over her first five frames.
Maryland’s offense provided Wyche a lead after a two-run top of the fourth.
Four different Terps singled in the inning, headlined with Sammi Woods’ two-run single to left with the bases loaded. Woods’ knock — her ninth and 10th RBIs of the season — gave the Terps a needed two-out hit to push ahead 2-1.
Wyche’s rough recent stretch, growing her ERA from by over 60 points following her first April start, made the Terps unable to rely on their usual ace. They needed to look for opportunities to get ahead offensively.
Aggressive hitting at the plate aided production from all areas of the lineup. Seven different Maryland batters recorded a hit, using production throughout the order on Sunday.
[Courtney Wyche could’ve left Maryland softball. She left her mark in College Park instead.]
The Terps had a chance to extend their lead in the top of the sixth, but Michaela Jones was thrown out at the plate trying to tag from third base on a Woods flyout.
Wisconsin’s offense did what Maryland couldn’t in the bottom of the frame: a successful sacrifice fly. MacFarlane caught a Brooke Kuffel fly ball in right field, but couldn’t get the ball to home plate in time to stop Paige Miller from scoring the tying run.
Jones had failed to notch a hit the whole game. Then, she singled to right-center with a runner on second in extra innings to push the Terps ahead. But Hilary Blomberg’s RBI single re-tied the game to extend the contest to a ninth frame.
MacFarlane’s single in the top of the ninth gave Maryland the run it needed to secure the sweep. Paired with Illinois’ loss on Sunday, the Terps’ win avoided their spot as the final seed in the Big Ten tournament.
