Game 8: BYU vs. Maryland

BYU 6, MARYLAND 4
 
FORT COLLINS, CO – First-inning home runs from Huntyr Ava and Maddie Udall gave BYU an early lead, and the Cougars held on to beat top-seeded Maryland and earn a spot in Saturday’s semifinals of the 2023 NISC.
 
The Cougars (34-16) will play in the 9 a.m. semifinal Saturday; the Terrapins (37-18) play later Friday against San Jose State, with the winner set to face Iowa in the other semifinal.

With one out in the top of the first inning, Maddie Bejarano doubled and Ava homered to left field to give BYU a 2-0 lead. Udall pushed the lead to 5-0 with a three-run shot. In the second, Hailey Morrow singled on a full count to bring in Ailana Agbayani and push the lead to 6-0.
 
Mackense Greico got Maryland in the mix with a two-run single in the third that scored Kiley Goff and Sammi Woods to make it 6-2. Greico kept the hits coming, adding a two-run homer in the fifth (her sixth of the season) to make it 6-4. Kiley Goff tripled with one out as Maryland looked to rally in the bottom of the seventh, but the push ended with a lineout to third, a walk and a strikeout.
 
For BYU, Chloe Temples went 3 2/3 innings and had eight strikeouts, and Kaysen Korth went 3 1/3 innings in relief to get the save, with three strikeouts. Keira Bucher threw six innings of relief for Maryland, allowing eight hits and one earned run.