Maryland
Maryland baseball fails to complete sweep, bested by Ohio State, 13-8 – WMUC Sports
Courtesy of Maryland Athletics
The Sunday Struggles continued for Maryland baseball in its weekend finale towards Ohio State in a deflating 13-8 loss. The Terps bested a Large Ten opponent for the third sequence in a row, however as soon as once more fumbled the sweep alternative after taking the primary two video games.
Maryland starter Kyle McCoy, who solely threw 3.1 innings, met his demise with a self-inflicted Ohio State stroll get together in his fourth and last body. Whereas the Maryland offense was certain to attain throughout well timed alternatives earlier within the sequence, nobody may herald any Maryland runs earlier than the Buckeyes’ onslaught arrived within the center innings. The Terps really had extra hits than their opposition as they boasted an 11-9 disparity, however left eight males on base to the Buckeyes’ 4.
“Clearly, while you win a sequence on the highway, it’s weekend,” Maryland coach Rob Vaughn stated. “However we put ourselves on this scenario three weeks in a row, and in case you wanna win the league, you gotta end these.”
The Terps held off the Buckeyes in two straight tightly contested battles on Friday and Saturday to take the sequence within the minimal quantity of video games. Jason Savacool propelled the visiting group to a 7-5 victory to get issues going, and a small-ball eighth inning proved to be the distinction in a good nearer 3-2 win the very subsequent day.
McCoy entered Sunday having misplaced his final two begins, each towards Large Ten opponents. He solely pitched 4 innings and allowed eight hits to each Iowa and Rutgers, however his final outing towards the Scarlet Knights was lower brief after a line drive nailed him within the face.
Maryland’s pitcher skilled his first inning struggles with Tyler Pettorini’s RBI double driving in Matthew Graveline, however he shook off the adversity and dealt a number of innings of sharp command. Again-to-back 1-2-3 frames adopted as McCoy routinely pressured weak contact out of the Buckeyes batters.
The Terps did not create runs within the first few innings, however they’d no scarcity of baserunners. 4 have been left stranded within the first two frames, culminating with Graveline robbing Luke Shliger’s would-be dwelling run on the fence.
The Buckeyes remained aggressive, absolutely attending to McCoy within the fourth. Pettorini smacked a leadoff hit, after which his teammates labored 4 straight walks, that means two walked-in runs for Ohio State. McCoy was pulled for Andrew Johnson, however the reliever too toiled away on the mound. As an alternative of ill-timed walks, Johnson first let up a base hit, then dedicated a balk, then a sac-fly, and eventually a three-run homer to Pettorini once more to triple the rating over his tenure from three to 9 in simply minutes. Only for good measure, Josh McAlister blasted a two-run shot of his personal to carry the result in a towering 11-0 within the fifth.
George Eisenhardt ensured that the Terps wouldn’t choose up any momentum after the Buckeyes created the huge lead, killing any kind of potential response by retiring the facet to start out the fifth. He contributed a powerful outing after starter Blaine Robinson solely pitched two innings, with Eisenhardt holding Maryland’s heads down for 3.1 turns.
The Terps first cracked the scoreboard within the sixth, when Jake Johnson got here in to alleviate Eisenhardt in a loaded bases scenario. The sub walked in a batter when he hit Zach Martin on his first pitch, and an Elijah Lambros flyout introduced in a second run to path 11-2 within the sixth.
Although the sport was all however out of attain, the Buckeyes did their greatest so as to add at any time when the Terps completed something. Marcus Ernst doubled to carry dwelling a twelfth run, enhancing the lead again to double digits. The Terps cobbled collectively their first spectacular sequence of hits within the seventh and introduced dwelling three extra runs because of Nick Lorusso and Eddie Hacopian, however one other Ohio State dwelling run, this time to Mitchell Okuley, once more altered the rating to a woeful 13-5.
Nick Lorusso’s three run hammer job within the high of the eighth introduced the deficit to as shut as 5, however the Maryland scoring sputtered to a dispiriting halt as Ohio State nearer Nolan Clegg put out all three ninth inning batters with a view to maintain the ultimate rating to 13-8.
“I do know everybody seems to be at pitching, however realistically, the distinction in that sport is simply the psychological stuff,” Vaughn stated. “We talked about psychological errors, or not understanding when the massive impactful play’s coming. Simply not adequate to complete…you set your self as much as sweep a sequence on the highway, you’ve gotta do job and end it.”
The final leg of Maryland’s highway journey will pit the Terps towards George Washington, the place the visiting group will look to take a midweek win on Tuesday at 3 p.m.