Despite a valiant effort, the Virginia softball team was unable to overcome the Terrapins' five grand slams in this weekend's three-game series at The Park.
The Cavaliers (10-22, 0-6 ACC) lost Saturday's two games 15-1 and 8-3 and lost yesterday 11-1.
Senior Stacey Jennings picked up the winfor the Terrapins (17-10, 3-0 ACC) to move to 5-7 in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader. Virginia managed just four hits and one run against Jennings. The Terrapins blasted Virginia's pitching combo of freshman Nicole Koren and sophomore Karla Wilburn for 12 hits including two grand slams, one by senior shortstop Amber Jackson and one by senior infielder Lindsay Klein. Koren fell to 0-6 on the season.
The Cavaliers fought hard in the second game of the doubleheader but still came up on the short end of an 8-3 decision. Sophomore Meredith Nelles got the win for Maryland to go to 9-3 on the year, while senior Coty Tolar picked up the loss for Virginia to fall to 4-6. Despite scoring five fewer runs than the Terrapins, the Cavaliers collected seven hits, only one less than the Terrapins' eight. Maryland had two more grand slams, however, another by Klein and one by senior utility player Jennifer Wellborn.
Virginia senior Brooke Sorber, playing as a designated hitter, sent her first ever homerun at The Park over the left-field wall.
Sophomore shortstop Kierstie Cameron, having just recently recovered from a rotator cuff injury, knocked her first hit of the year, a double to left field, in the fifth inning.
"It was great to finally get a good strong contact point on the ball," Cameron said. "I was struggling from the beginning of the year and not getting very many at-bats. Then I was going through another injury phase but being able to just see the ball and relax in the box is what helped me hit that line drive."
Also in the fifth inning, junior infielder Casey Steffan got her first-ever collegiate hit with a single down the right-field line.
Sunday, Virginia battled Maryland tooth-and-nail for seven innings. The Terrapins scored one run in the second inning and the Cavaliers tied it in the fourth when freshman third baseman Abby Snyder scored on a wild pitch.
Maryland, however, exploded in the eighth inning for 10 runs to close the door on the Cavaliers' chances of taking the third game of the series. Jackson recorded her second -- and the team's fifth -- grand slam of the series to put the game out of reach.
Nelles picked up another win for the Terrapins to go to 10-3, while Tolar got the loss for Virginia to drop to 4-7. Freshman Nicole Koren was the starting pitcher but went only one inning. Tolar came in as early relief and pitched well for six innings.
"I came in early and I was trying to get outs," Tolar said. "I wasn't trying to strike anybody out. I was trying to them to ground out and hit my spots better. Yesterday, I missed two pitches and they took advantage of it and I tried not to give them that today at all."
For the Terrapins, Klein tallied nine runs batted in. Virginia's offensive leaders were Sorber who had three RBIs, including one home run, and Snyder, who collected three hits.
The Cavaliers left 28 runners on base over the span of the weekend, a statistic that will have to change in the future for them to become successful.
"Runners left on base and the blow up in the eighth inning -- the combination of those two things didn't help us win that game," Virginia coach Karen Johns said.
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