Softball claims Strike Out Cancer Tournament title

Last week's warm temperatures seem to have helped heat up the Terrapin softball team's bats. After a cold-in-the-clutch opening weekend, the Terps went 4-1 and won the Strike Out Cancer Tournament at Florida Atlantic yesterday, capping the weekend with a 5-4 win over Pittsburgh in the championship game.

"We still have some things to work on, but we're improving every weekend, and that's what's key to this part of the season right now," coach Laura Watten said.

The Terps (6-4) got contributions from all areas over the weekend. In the championship game yesterday, Watten used all three of her top pitchers — Kendra Knight, Kerry Hickey and Ashley Czechner — for at least two innings to close the door on the Panthers. At the plate, infielders Bree Hanafin and Marisha Branson keyed a four-run second inning that put the Terps ahead for good.

Branson spent the weekend playing hero for the Terps, as she notched a walk-off single in Friday's opener for a 1-0, eight-inning victory over Pittsburgh before her game-winning single Saturday gave the Terps another eight-inning win, 2-1, over Jacksonville. For the weekend, Branson tied for the team lead with a .462 batting average, and led the Terps with four runs scored and four RBI.

"Marisha's a clutch player," Watten said. "She's mature. She just always comes through really in a lot of clutch situations. We were lucky to have her in and coming up in those situations."

Watten also felt having extra-inning games this early in the season, despite their stresses, was good for her team.

"I was really happy to see us win extra-inning games because we hadn't really been in that situation yet and to not really be fazed getting down in a few games and coming back," she said.

In the same games that Branson was clutch at the plate, Knight came through in the circle. In the first game against Pittsburgh (7-3) and against Jacksonville, Knight combined for 15.2 innings pitched, three hits and one run allowed and 14 strikeouts.

"It'd be good to see that out of all three of them, but it's good to see Kendra starting out really strong," Watten said. "She had a really good a weekend. It's what we need. It helps us stay in games and get our offense going."

While the weekend was successful with a tournament title, two defeats of a quality Pittsburgh team and wins over Jacksonville (9-8) and Connecticut (2-3) on Saturday, there were still blemishes.

For the weekend, the Terps committed nine errors, including three in Friday's loss to Kent State (5-9). And of the 11 runs the Terp pitching staff allowed on the weekend, only six were earned.

"The game that we lost, it was the errors that cost us," Watten said. "Those are things that happen and things that we know we need to work on. ... It affects not only the pitching staff, it affects everybody, but it's part of the game."

The real story of the weekend, though, was the Terp bats coming to life. As a team, the Terps batted an improved .275 over the weekend, with Hanafin's three-hit performance in the championship game bumping her average for the weekend up to .462. Outfielder Sara Acosta joined Branson in being the only player to record a hit in every game in the tournament, and she also scored the winning run in Friday's walk-off win.

With the regular late-inning excitement, Watten was impressed with her team's ability to stay in close games and deliver the hits that had been lacking two weekends ago.

"We really just stayed the course and were able to come through with some key wins," Watten said. "The resilience played a big role in our extra-inning games that we won as well."

dgallen@umdbk.com