April 3, 2007

College Park, Md. - The Maryland Terrapins return home Wednesday after an eight game road trip to take on Delaware State in a non-conference doubleheader starting at 5 p.m. The Terps are looking to rebound after dropping three games to Florida State last weekend, ending the team's 11 game winning streak.

Maryland currently stands at 19-13, and is ready to start a new run of success. Of Maryland's 25 remaining regular season games, 22 will be played at Robert E. Taylor Stadium in College Park. Maryland is 3-0 at home so far this season.

The Hornets (8-18) started the season 2-15, but have rebounded recently, winning six of their last nine games. Delaware State has averaged more than eight runs in those six wins.

Maryland will turn to its pair of aces - senior Stacey Jennings and sophomore Meredith Nelles -- to quiet the Hornets.

Jennings ranks seventh in the ACC with a 2.24 ERA, with Nelles two places behind her at 2.28. During the Terps' 11 game winning streak, Jennings pitched two no-hitters, with three wins, one save, and an ERA of .32. In 28 innings of action during that stretch, she allowed only eight hits and one earned run, with 24 strike outs.

Nelles, meanwhile, pitched eight scoreless innings in Maryland's 14 inning marathon against Florida State, before the Seminoles finally broke through with a two-run homer in her ninth inning inside the pitcher's circle.

Amber Jackson will have two games Wednesday in which to break two Terrapin single-season records. With 36 RBIs on the year already, she needs only two more to catch Beth Radford, who recorded 38 in 1999. Maryland's Lindsay Ubrun had 37 as a freshman a year ago.

Jackson already tied Ubrun for the single season home record at 11, which Ubrun set last year in her freshman campaign. With 25 regular season games to go, Jackson can put some distance between herself and the nearest Terrapins on that list.

With 30 runs and 28 walks already this season, Jackson will likely threaten those marks as well by the time this season winds down. Catrina Ansbach already had her record-setting day for the Hornets. She passed the Delaware State record for career RBIs in the Hornets sweep of Morgan State on Monday. The senior now has 145 RBIs and 39 home runs for her career.

Megan Lambertz, Candace Shockley, and Ansbach all have recorded double-digit RBIs this season, and Lambertz leads the team with a .343 batting average. Freshman Courtney Taylor bats a .333 average and leads the team with nine stolen bases.

The Terps own a perfect 5-0 record against the Hornets, with all five games occurring in the past three years. Maryland swept the doubleheader exactly one year ago, taking game one 10-1 in five innings, and earning a 6-5 victory in game two.