Keira Bucher backed herself into a hole in the fourth inning. After loading the bases with a walk and two singles, she needed two outs to avoid increasing Maryland softball’s deficit.
The pressure was too much to handle. The junior fired four straight balls and walked a runner home. She threw a wild pitch to send another through. A single from the next batter ended her campaign in the circle for the day and plagued the Terps’ day.
They fell to Belmont on Saturday, 9-1, dropping the weekend series in a performance that mimicked their loss to Queens last weekend. Like then, one bad inning was too much to overcome in their third mercy-rule loss of the season.
Bucher’s appearance in the circle was her first start of the season, third overall outing for Maryland (6-10). She allowed only two hits in a scoreless three innings against the Bruins (12-7) on Friday but failed to find similar success in the series’ rubber match.
The Terps’ starter allowed a pair of runs in the bottom of the second as an error from sophomore Bailey Murphy in right field gave Belmont a 2-0 lead. The miscue followed a double and a single that started the inning.
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Bucher closed the frame strong and continued that success with a one-two-three third inning. Then came her fourth frame woes, when she allowed five of the Bruins’ first six batters in the inning to reach base.
Bucher finished with seven runs allowed, all earned, in her worst performance of the season after two-straight scoreless games.
Aubrey Wurst entered in relief of Bucher in the fourth inning to stop further damage, but still allowed a hit and two runs to extend the Bruins’ advantage to 7-1. The freshman had her own command woes in the circle, walking three runners and hitting another in the fifth inning — the final two each scored runs that gave Belmont the mercy-rule win.
Unlike in their last game against the Bruins, the Terps had a slow start offensively with just two hits across the first three innings. They doubled that total in the fourth to earn their first run of the game.
Junior Sydney Lewis got Maryland rolling with a one-out double to left field, then was pinch-run for by freshman Gracie Wilson. Graduate student Sam Bean came to the plate with two outs and singled to center to score Wilson, her 8th RBI of the season that brought the Terps within one.
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But their offensive woes throughout — paired with the fourth-inning pitching struggles — proved important.
Maryland never capitalized on its hits against Belmont pitcher Rayna Cruickshanks throughout the matchup. The senior only needed three strikeouts for her fourth win of the season, instead relying primarily on flyouts (seven) and groundouts (four).
While the Bruins didn’t have a comparably outstanding day at the plate — they only had two more hits than the Terps — their runners were moved around easily by Maryland’s six walks in the matchup. The Terps’ 57 walks allowed are the most in the Big Ten.
Maryland will have to fix its pitching problems quickly with six games looming within the next week. The Terps will host two of them before heading to Georgia for their final trip ahead of the start of conference play.
