The 2022 campaign was a season of firsts for Maryland softball, which reached new heights as a member of the Big Ten.
From their highest-ever seed in the Big Ten tournament to the most regular-season wins in the Big Ten era, the Terps looked to be turning the corner.
However, 2022 was merely the appetizer to the main entrée that is the 2023 season, already a historic campaign for a program finding its stride.
“I just think we started focusing on attacking our strengths. For each pitcher on the staff, using our strengths to beat teams,” senior pitcher Courtney Wyche said of the team’s growth the past two years. “… As a team, we shifted our mindset. We shifted our team culture, started having a better mentality toward some of the goals that we wanted to achieve and then focusing on the process to get to those goals, not necessarily the goal itself.”
In 2019, the Terps posted their second last-place finish in the Big Ten in three years with a 20-31 record overall and a 4-19 conference record.
Wyche joined the program ahead of the COVID-shortened 2020 season, when Maryland went 12-11. Now, as a senior, she is part of a Terps team that sits 29-13 entering play April 19. Among the growing list of accomplishments thus far for Maryland: Three straight shutouts in a home sweep of Michigan State and two nonconference wins against top-25 teams.
“We have gone from competing with some of those top teams to this season, we have the mentality now that we’re going to beat those teams,” said Wyche, a native of Silver Spring. “It’s now become an expectation to not only just compete, but to go for the win and not be surprised when we do win because we worked for it and earned it.”
Pitching has been a strong suit for the Terps, with a 2.58 team ERA through 42 games. That has been highlighted by the performances of Wyche and senior Trinity Schlotterbeck, who threw a five-inning perfect game against Texas A&M Commerce on Feb. 24.
Offensively, Maryland is slashing .284/.375/.430 with 24 homers and 211 runs scored through 42 games compared to a 2021 slash line of .277/.359/.375.
“Honestly, it’s been a wild ride,” fifth-year infielder Mackense Greico said. “To just even see the progression from last year to this year — I mean, last year we had the best finish in the Big Ten that we’ve had since joining, but just seeing this super special group that we have this year has been mind-blowing. I’m not sure that anyone anticipated it out of us except for ourselves.”
Coaching changes can often be the catalyst of change, and under fourth-year head coach Mark Montgomery, the program has been on a trajectory toward success.
Montgomery brought nearly two decades of head coaching experience with him to College Park in hopes of bringing back a winning culture. Following 2022, the confidence spread like wildfire and rejuvenated the Terps in a way the program hasn’t seen since its ACC days.
Greico said it started with the season-opening Puerto Vallarta College Challenge in Mexico, which included wins against Oregon, BYU, Oklahoma State and North Dakota State.
“We came out with a vengeance in Mexico,” said Greico, a native of Aberdeen. “We had a plan and we went out there and executed it. We wanted the opening win against Oregon. We wanted that win against Oklahoma State and we went and we got it. I think that was the beginning to realizing just how good of a group we had and how strong of a competitor that we, as a program, would be this year.”
Though they are eyeing their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2012, the Terps aren’t simply focused on the present.
This is about building a Maryland team that will be a competitor long after 2023.
“It’s pretty incredible,” Wyche said. “I’m thankful to be here, to have seen the growth, to be part of the growth. Coach [Montgomery] tells us all the time, especially the seniors, we’re not only creating a legacy for now, we’re creating a legacy for later. It’s been a remarkable time seeing the growth that this program has gone through and to know where it’s going to continue to go as we go into the future.”
Photo Credits: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics