Softball travels to another early-season tournament

Two weeks after a struggling start in Georgia, the Terrapin softball team travels to the Strike Out Cancer Tournament, hosted by Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla., looking to reverse its early-season tournament fortunes.

"I think the first weekend we put a lot of pressure on ourselves," coach Laura Watten said. "I think that had a lot to do with our challenges at the plate. It was tough."

After the Red and Black Showcase two weeks ago, the Terps sit at 2-3, having scored only two runs in their three losses.

In 2010, the Terps started 4-6, but were able to rebound to make the NCAA Tournament.

"We're not thinking about last year, we're not thinking about the year before, we're just thinking about this year and what we need to do, what we're doing day by day and what we're going to really focus on for the long run," Watten said.

Today, the Terps open a five-game set that does not feature a team ranked or receiving votes in the NFCA Top 25 Poll. Two weeks ago, they faced four of them.

"There's not a No. 3 team there, there's not a top-10 team there, but all these teams are very tough and very strong, and the majority of them get into the postseason on a consistent basis," Watten said. "It's definitely a tough tournament and it's one that we really need to go in on and establish ourselves."

The Terps' first matchup today comes against Pittsburgh (12-1), which is coming off a strong 4-1 record in the FIU Blue and Gold Tournament that included a victory over defending ACC Champion Georgia Tech.

After the Panthers, the Terps' opponents vary in quality. Today, they'll also face a 3-6 Kent State team. Tomorrow, they will face off against a Connecticut squad opening its season and an 8-4 Jacksonville outfit that was picked to finish fifth in the Altlantic Sun Conference.

Sunday, the Terps will appear in either the championship, third-place or fifth-place game, depending on the outcome of the other games.

With the warm-up in temperatures last week, the Terps were able to get in quality practices outdoors in natural light, something that infielder Bree Hanafin thinks will help get the offense going.

"We got to practice outside a lot this week so hopefully that will carry over with our hitting," Hanafin said. "Our defense was pretty solid. If we put them both together, then we should be good."

Watten believes the numerous nonconference tournaments the team competes in will help once ACC play rolls around in a few weeks.

"It really gives us an opportunity to see pretty much everything we have and get a lot of work in as a unit, as a team, with facing all different levels of competition, because even within this conference we have all different levels of competition," she said.

But at the same time, the coach is focusing on the present.

"I just really want to see them go out and attack," Watten said. "I want to see them overcome that and I want to see them rise to the challenge of going out and playing some tough competition and some tough teams that you know are going to challenge us in every way, shape and form."

dgallen@umdbk.com