DELAND, Fla. – Maryland was edged in both of its games on Friday in the team's first day of competition at the Stetson Invitational in DeLand, Florida. Maryland was bested by Fairfield after the team's hot start fizzled out and lost in an extra-innings heartbreaker under the lights against Stetson.
Game One – Box Score
The Terps piled on four runs on six hits in the opening inning at the Stetson Invitational, but was held to one hit the rest of the game – an Anna Kufta solo homer – and ultimately fell to the Fairfield Stags, 5-6.
Sydney Golden pitched the whole game for the Terps, allowing 13 hits and five earned runs while striking out three batters.
Bailey Boyd got things started for Maryland, knocking in two runs on a single in the first inning to give the Terps the early lead. RBI singles from Sammie Stefan and Taylor Wilson put the Terps up 4-0 through the first, but offensively the team couldn't sustain the hitting or scoring as the game went on.
Fairfield wouldn't answer until the third, when three RBI singles cut the Maryland lead to one. Fairfield would then take the lead in the fifth on a two-RBI double.
Anna Kufta hit her fourth homer of the season in the fifth, a solo job, which tied it up at five. Unfortunately for the Terps, it would be Maryland's last hit of the game.
Fairfield regained the lead in the top of the seventh and Maryland went three up, three down in the bottom of the inning which ended the game.
Game Two – Box Score
Sami Main obliterated her single-game best in strikeouts (8) and also set a new game-high in innings pitched (7.2) but the Terps couldn't overcome the home team under the lights at Patricia Wilson field.
A low-scoring affair until extra innings, neither team established the momentum necessary to pull away at any point in the game. Stetson got the early lead in the second on a bases-loaded walk, but it would be the only run scored until the fifth inning when Maryland got back on top via an RBI double from Sammie Stefan and an RBI single from Micaela Abbatine.
Responding quickly, Stetson hit a double to drive in the tying run immediately after in the bottom of the inning, and there would be no more scoring until extras.
Anna Kufta drove in the first run of extra innings as the team's RBI leader singled and plated Regan Kerr. Kufta would then reach home on an error, and Bailey Boyd tripled to plate one more run as the Terps scored more runs in the inning than they had all game. The three-run cushion looked to be enough to escape the eighth with a win, but the Hatters drove in run after run and won on a walk-off RBI double.
Maryland plays two tomorrow on the second day of the Stetson Invitational. The Terps face the Skyhawks of UT-Martin at 12:30 p.m. and Bethune-Cookman, led by former Maryland coach Laura Watten, at 3:00 p.m.
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