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In her previous at-bat, Sarde Stewart had hit a deep blast towards the right-field wall. But the ball froze in the cold air and fell harmlessly to warning track, where Florida State outfielder Whitney Buckmon ended the fifth inning and left the Terrapin softball team still down one.

Stewart found herself at the plate again in the bottom of the seventh with runners on second and third, two outs, and the scoreboard still showing a one-run deficit.

This time, Stewart delivered.

The senior first baseman smacked a bloop single barely over the outstretched glove of Seminole shortstop Ashley Stager, scoring redshirt freshman outfielder Niki Lau and senior outfielder Meghan Booth and sealing the 4-3 win Sunday, along with a 2-1 weekend series for the Terps (27-10, 3-6 ACC).

"It feels really good because I was struggling at first with getting a hit earlier in the game," Stewart said. "I was just thinking that I need to get a hit, we need to score, because we're not losing this game."

While Stewart's heroics are what everyone will remember about Sunday's win, they wouldn't have been possible without some from junior pitcher Meredith Nelles.

In the top of the seventh, freshman pitcher Kerry Hickey hit two Seminoles to put runners on first and second with one out. Trying to keep it a one-run game, coach Laura Watten called on Nelles, who didn't disappoint.

Nelles quickly retired both batters she faced, popping up Allison Collins and inducing Jessica Gilmore to ground out, to end the inning and the threat.

"It's a big win for us," Nelles said. "We wanted to come out and take it from them. They're a team that, if you give them the momentum, they'll take it. So we wanted to knock them down and take the series and just take that into our last couple weeks. We're nearing the end of the season and we wanted to end [the series] on a good note."

The Terps opened their three-game series against Florida State (31-15, 7-5) on Saturday with a 3-1 victory off a sixth-inning, two-run homer by senior catcher Brittany Bessho, giving the Seminoles their first road loss of the season. Junior starter Sarah Dooley had a solid outing, only allowing one run while striking out six. Solid defense also highlighted Saturday's victory.

The Terps couldn't find their offense in Saturday's second game, a 3-0 loss. Nelles (10-3) struggled, allowing three runs in 4 1/3 innings. Dooley came on in relief and didn't give up a hit in 2 2/3, but it wasn't enough as the Terps couldn't get their bats going. Seminole starter Sarah Hamilton and reliever Terese Gober combined to allow three hits, no walks and no runs.

"The second game, we kind of lost our momentum from the first game and we didn't really carry it over," Watten said. "We made a plan [Saturday] to come out [Sunday] and start driving through the conference as much as we can and really pushing the gas pedal."

With the series win, the Terps gained some much-needed confidence heading into the final 20 games of the regular season. Facing the ACC's two best teams, North Carolina and Virginia Tech, in succession, the Terps got off to a rough 1-5 start in conference play.

With Sunday's dramatic victory against the third-place Seminoles, the Terps know they can hang with some of the ACC's best and have put themselves in good position to recapture some of the success they had earlier in the season.

The Terps' first three ACC opponents boast a combined 27-8 conference record, while their final four are a combined 15-30.

"They know what they're capable of," Watten said. "We've faced the top three teams in the conference now and to win the series against Florida State is pretty big ... I feel like we're in a good place. We've worked to get some momentum, which we have right now."

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