Softball goes 2-3 in roller-coaster weekend

The Terrapin softball team returned to Florida on Friday looking to build on the tournament championship it had earned there the week before.

But in a roller-coaster weekend, the team ultimately faltered, losing three of five games.

"We got us the early lead, but we just couldn't hold it," coach Laura Watten said. "We just let some things happens and didn't really rebound the way we needed to. Our pitching got hit quite a bit on Friday, which isn't normal, but it happens, and it's just a part of that whole learning curve."

The Terps (8-7) got off to a slow start to open the tournament Friday, squandering leads to Illinois State and Illinois. Against Illinois State, the Terps held a 3-0 lead after four innings before being outscored late in a 9-7 loss.

In their later matchup with the Fighting Illini, the Terps took a 1-0 lead into the sixth inning but came out on the wrong end of a 3-1 score after pitcher Kerry Hickey was tagged for three runs in the inning.

Hickey and the Terps bounced back Saturday, scoring a season-high 16 runs in a shutout win over Longwood. Hickey rebounded well, pitching a one-hit shutout and striking out 11 in the five-inning game. The offense scored eight runs on seven singles in the opening inning and never looked back.

Freshman Candice Beards also hit her first home run in the third inning of the game. Hickey and infielder Bree Hanafin both had three-hit games, and 11 of the 15 Terps who saw action either scored at least one run or had at least one RBI.

Despite the offensive explosion, Watten felt the game had a negative impact on her team for the day. The Terps started out slow against Notre Dame, which jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three innings and held off a Terp rally to win, 5-3.

"I think it drains you a lot mentally and physically to beat a team by that much," Watten said. "To be honest, it's a little scary because, if you have another game right after it, the challenge is to stay up and stay consistent going right into the next game. It's difficult to go out and jump on a team and score eight runs in the first inning and keep my team going."

Watten said the game against the Fighting Irish could be described as a letdown and the team did not make the adjustments it needed to. An error by outfielder Lauren Ghent allowed three unearned runs to score and put the Terps in too big of a hole to make up, squandering a good outing from Kendra Knight.

"We scored enough runs in that game to win a game, and in a typical Kendra day we could have kept their runs down, but it was just a bases-loaded dropped ball that let them score extra runs," Watten said.

However, the team took a 1-0 win over Temple to finish out the weekend behind a complete game from Ashley Czechner, which Watten feels generated momentum for her team and confidence for Czechner, who got bounced around in the loss to Illinois State.

"In any series every single weekend that you play, the Sunday games are the biggest challenge," Watten said. "By the time you get to Sunday, you're fatigued, and you're tired, and you've played a lot of games and played a lot of innings. You're pitchers have thrown a lot. By the time you get to Sunday, it's who can make the least amount of mistakes, and we didn't make any today."

dgallen@umdbk.com