The Turnaround of Terrapin Softball–Blog from Todd Carton

What does it take to turn a team around? In 2014, the Maryland softball team finished 11-35. The 11 wins were the fewest in the 20 year history of the program. With rumor and controversy swirling around the coaching staff, Maryland released Larua Watten from her contract and in late summer hired Courtney Scott-Deifel as the program’s third head coach.

Scott-Deifel came with a solid pedigree. As a player at the University of California Berkeley, she was an All-American catcher and was part of a national championship team in 2002 and national runner-up in 2003. She was an assistant at Maryland in 2009-2010 before moving on to Louisville – also as an assistant coach – where she helped guide the Cardinals to a cumulatiive 176-60 record and four NCAA Tournament appearances.

She inherited an emotionally dispirited and physically depleted squad several of whom were considering leaving the program. Because she was hired in late summer, her 2015 freshman class was set and signed and few players would be available to recruit for 2016 as well. Scot-Deifel would have to play the hand she was dealt.

Her first task was to find a way to rekindle the team’s excitement for playing the game. She also needed to instill a winning attitude while finding ways to maximize the talent of the roster she inherited.

She passed that challenge when the Terps got off to a respectable start going 3-2 in their first two preseason tournaments before winning four of five at the Mary Nutter Classic in Palm Springs. Even more encouraging than the wins may have been the team’s competitive fire. Those first five losses came by a total of six runs while the Terps were on the winning side of three other one run games.

Maryland entered their first Big Ten series at Iowa with an 18-12 non-conference record. The Terps took two of three in Iowa City before returning to College Park to split a mid-week doubleheader with Dartmouth and drop two of three to Ohio State.

After winning two of three at Indiana, Illinois stormed into College Park and swept the Terrapins. Only the last game of the series, a 5-4 loss was really close. That sweep marked the first three game losing streak of the season and only the third time the squad had lost back to back games. Scott-Deifel now faced a new challenge – getting her team to rebound and prevent the season from spinning into a downward spiral.

How did the Terps respond? About as well as they possibly could completing a three game sweep of the Penn State Nittany Lions on Sunday. Penn State is neither a historically strong nor particularly strong softball program this season. However, they were coming off a two game sweep of Ohio State – a squad that had beaten the Terps two out of three.

And the Terps did it with fight. Friday night that rallied from 1-0 and 4-2 deficits to win 8-6 decision largely on the strength of a five run fourth inning. (For those who don’t know, softball games are seven innings.) Saturday, they fell behind 4-0 when Penn State catcher Alyssa VanDerveer hit a grand slam in the top of the first. The Terps clawed their way back into the game staying within striking distance before rallying from two down to start the bottom of the seventh and pulling out the win on a two out walk-off two run home run by their catcher, Shannon Bustillos. Sunday, the Terps jumped in front 5-0 and held on for a 5-3 win to improve to 8-7 in the B1G and 26-19 overall.

So, what does it take to affect such a turnaround? Coach Deifel talked about her approach this week,
“What we’ve been talking about the whole week is just finishing strong in the Big Ten and attacking each pitch of each inning one at a time to try and put some good innings together. I’m really proud of how the team came out from the first pitch of the first game to the last pitch of the last game.”

After Sunday’s game, winning pitcher Hannah Dewey gave her perspective on the season,

“It’s a complete 180 turnaround as far as the coaching staff goes. It’s been awesome just to see the difference in the players because we didn’t really change that much as a roster. It’s great to see the potential that we really have and it’s awesome what good positive energy can do to a team. I’m excited to see where we can go from here.”

And teammate Lindsey Schmeiser, who finished the weekend 5-10 with four runs scored and four RBI while extending her team record hitting streak to 22 consecutive games, concurred,

“I think it says a lot when you have pretty much the exact same lineup out there but a completely different team technically. Our entire coaching staff just makes us love the game. I think that’s one of the things we needed back this year. They want us playing free and aggressive and as long as we do that, it’s however the chips fall. It’s a feeling of go out and play hard and as long as we play well and respect the game the that’s all we can expect and whatever happens happens.”

What does it take to turn a team around? Earlier in the season, Saturday’s hero (heroine?) Shannon Bustillos said this,

“It’s breaking it down and making it simple. See the ball. Hit the ball. Coach Yo (assistant coach Yolanda McCrae) doesn’t use a cookie cutter hitting style. She takes your personal hitting style and adds a little bit to it. She’s tailored an individual hitting style for each person. She adapts to you. She looks at what you do best then takes that and makes you better.”

And the results are clearly manifest. In 46 games in 2014, Maryland scored 188 runs. In 44 games this season, the Terps have tallied 310. Home runs have increased from 20 to 57. The team batting average to .314 from .269 and slugging percentage to .525 from .382.

The pitchers have shown similar improvements. Kaitlyn Schmeiser’s ERA as dropped from 4.99 to 3.35 and opponents batting average has dropped from .328 to .253. Though she pitched only sparingly in 2014, Hannah Dewey has shown even more dramatic improvement dropping her ERA from 11.49 to 5.11 and improving her control from walking 1.75 batters per inning to walking one batter every inning and a half.

Maryland is currently tied with fellow conference newcomer Rutgers for sixth place in the Big Ten. These two squads will meet in a doubleheader Tuesday afternoon before Maryland closes out their home season with the daunting task of hosting the fourth ranked Michigan Wolverines who are currently 41-6 overall and 14-2 in the conference.

The coach believes her squad will be excited and ready to play their first mid-week games in nearly a month. “They like to play games. We get to go on the road and play some Big Ten games coming off a really good weekend. I think they’ll be excited to get back out there on Tuesday.”

Other Maryland Sports, Todd Carton
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