AQUAFINA INVITATIONAL
Feb. 17-18, 2017 || Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The Maryland softball team will play its second non-conference tournament of the 2017 season when the team travels to play four games at the Aquafina Invitational in Gainesville, Fla.
The tournament, hosted by #1 Florida at Katie Seashole Pressley Stadium, will also feature Florida International, Northwestern State and Florida A&M.
Maryland will look to capture its first win of the year after going 0-5 at the Texas Invitational, where the Terps played two games against #16 Minnesota and a game against Texas, which was receiving votes in the NFCA Coaches Poll.
(Check out this year's season preview series released last week below)
Infield Preview -- Outfield Preview -- Bullpen Preview
FRESHMEN FIREPOWER
- Freshmen Amanda Brashear and Anna Kufta turned in a pair of solid weekends as they made their collegiate debuts for the Terps at the Texas Invitational.
- Brashear led Maryland in hitting, knocking a team-best eight hits for a .500 average while starting in every game in the outfield. The Chino Calif. added a run and hit the lone triple on the weekend for UMD.
- Kufta flashed her power potential in five starts, slugging .938 with two home runs and two doubles. She added two runs and a team-high four RBIs while going 7-for-16.
2016 Rewind
- Maryland is coming off a 12-40 season which saw the team win four games in the Big Ten
- The team bid farewell to its graduating seniors Corey Schwartz and Lindsey Schmeiser. Schmeiser was an All-Big Ten selection and holds the program record for home runs (32), runs scored (138) and single season RBIs (59) and doubles (21).
- The Terps return 13 letterwinners from last season and six starters.
SKY IS THE LIMIT
- Junior Skylynne Ellazar will look to build off her tremendous sophomore season in 2016 for the Terps, where she finished with the third highest season batting average ever (.399) for a Terrapin.
- Ellazar went 7-for-15 last weekend at the Texas Invite, scoring three runs while currently sporting a .467 average.
- Ellazar also currently holds the career batting average record at Maryland (min. 80 at-bats) with a .389 mark. She is a full .40 points above the No. 2 player on the list (Vangie Galindo 09-12) and will again be a staple in the lineup for the Terps this season.
- “Sky” led team in batting average (.399), slugging percentage (.574), on base percentage (.458), runs scored (32), hits (59), doubles (12), total bases (85) and assists (103) and was second in RBIs (29) and home runs (4) last year.
- Ellazar was named one of “10 NCAA Softball Juniors to Watch in 2017” by fastpitchnews.com on January 30.
200 ON THE HORIZON FOR WRIGHT
- Head coach Julie Wright is within striking distance of 200 career wins, coming into the 2017 with 191 career victories in her eighth season as a Division I head softball coach.
- After amassing 53 wins during her two-year stint at Akron, she put together 126 victories at Idaho State, which included three consecutive Big Sky Regular Season titles.
next up
- Maryland will head to Lafayette, La. for five games at the Mardi Gras Classic hosted by by Louisiana-Lafayette.
-Terps-
