CONWAY, S.C.—The Maryland softball team split a morning-afternoon double header today in the second day of competition at the Kickin' Chicken Classic. The Terps (1-2, 0-0 B1G) defeated Lafayette in the morning game, 8-2 and fell to Virginia Tech in the afternoon on a walk-off, 11-10.
With nine strikeouts in today's first game, Kaitlyn Schmeiser moved into the ninth spot for all-time strikeouts in program history with 288. The victory over Lafayette marks Maryland head coach Courtney Scott Deifel's first win at the helm of the Terrapins and the first win of the season.
Maryland heads back to the diamond on Sunday for the final day of competition in the Kickin' Chicken Classic with a double header against host, Coastal Carolina. The first game will start at 11:45 a.m. and the second game will start at approximately 2:15 p.m.
First Game
Senior Kaitlyn Schmeiser dominated from the pitching mound, retiring the first six Leopard batters of the game, while the Terps bats came alive scoring three runs in the first off RBIs from Corey Schwartz, Mandy Gardner and Hannah Dewey. Two errors by the Terps helped Lafayette get two runs back. Maryland then shut the door defensively and exploded offensively.
Mandy Gardner had an RBI sac fly and Corey Schwartz added a two-run homer to extend the lead to 6-2 going to the seventh. Bridget Hawvermale added an additional two RBIs to give the Terps an 8-2 lead.
The team totaled eight runs on 11 hits. Schmeiser finished the complete game with zero earned runs, two hits and nine strikeouts. Corey Schwartz went 3-for-3 at the plate with 3 RBIs, while Mandy Gardner went 1-for-2 with 2 RBIs. Hannah Dewey added a 2-for-3 day at the plate and Sarah Calta went 2-for-4.
Second Game
Juli Strange led the game off with a home run giving, but the Hokies responded with a three-run homer of their own to take a 3-1 lead. The teams went back and forth for a while until the Hokies broke out with three runs to extend their lead to 6-2.
Corey Schwartz smacked a three-run home run to get the Terps back in the game, 6-5. Virginia Tech added four runs in the bottom of the fifth to extent their lead back to 10-6. The Terps crawled back in with a Corey Schwartz RBI single and a Mandy Gardner three-run home run to tie the game.
The Hokies would walk-off in the bottom of the seventh to win the game 11-10.
-Maryland-
