Maryland baseball’s bullpen struggles, fall in the series finale – WMUC Sports

Courtesy of Maryland Athletics

Maryland baseball fell flat in its collection ultimate towards Rutgers on Sunday in a convincing 14-8 defeat. For the second week in a row, the Terps saved their opponent from the sweep by dropping their collection finale.

Kyle McCoy, who began for Maryland, exited within the high of the fifth after taking a line drive to the face. He walked off the sector on his personal however compelled Maryland coach Rob Vaughn to alter his sport plan on the fly. The relievers who adopted let up eight of Rutgers’ 12 runs.

The Maryland offense managed to carve collectively rallies early by way of well timed hits, however the scoring petered out proper because the Golden Knights took off. Although the Terps fell quick, Luke Shliger singled in two of the Terps’ runs, Zach Martin smacked three doubles and Luke Zeisloft drove in a three-run house run late to make the deficit look extra respectable.

“That is what I actually challenged [the team] on,” Vaughn mentioned. “When you have got a chance to brush on a Sunday you’ve bought to make the most of it. And I didn’t assume we performed dangerous…however simply not as clear as we would have liked to be.”

Regardless of the loss, this marked one more profitable weekend for the Terps. They transfer to 19-12 and 4-2 in Huge Ten play, in addition to 11-4 at house.

Each groups strung collectively hit rallies early on Sunday earlier than Rutgers (16-15, 2-4 in Huge Ten) ran away with it, creating what was initially probably the most back-and-forth matchup of the weekend collection. The place the 2 prior video games had been outlined by Rutgers constructing small leads earlier than blowing them, the primary 4 innings noticed the Terps get on the board first with an Eddie Hacopian double bringing in Nick Lorusso. 

Freshman McCoy dealt a quiet first inning, however the Scarlet Knights constantly knocked him round within the frames to comply with. He let up at the very least one run in innings two by way of 4, with a two-run Ryan Lasko double rising the Rutgers rating to 4 runs within the fourth.

The Terps contributed some small-ball of their very own, as Shliger slapped two separate RBI singles to twice carry Martin house. Martin, this weekend’s designated hitter, has loved close to instant success amidst his first three begins of the season, most memorably blasting a two-run homer in Saturday’s 4-3 victory. 

The fifth inning kicked off with McCoy nonetheless on the mound, however he skilled a scare when Chris Brito lined one into the pitcher’s face. The gang went quiet, and McCoy walked again to the dugout by his personal energy along with his hat and glove masking his face. He completed with seven allowed hits by way of 4 innings and 4 earned runs. 

Nigel Belgrave entered in reduction, however he too struggled to maintain the Scarlet Knights from reaching base. He loaded the bases earlier than letting up a bloop single and a pop-out, which scored two extra Rutgers runs to additional enhance the rating to 6-3. He slipped even additional within the sixth, relenting two house runs to Lasko and Jordan Sweeney. Andrew Johnson entered to cease the bleeding, however gave up one more two-run tank to Josh Kuroda-Grauer. By the point the Terps compelled their third out, Rutgers’ rating had doubled from six to 12.

Matt Shaw singled up the center to drive in (who else however) Martin within the backside of the sixth, including a fourth run for Maryland, however nearly every part that adopted was paperwork. Lorusso singled within the eighth to increase his hit streak to 30 video games, however the Terps waited till their final out to make a dent within the rating. Luke Zeisloft stepped up with a two-out three-run jack within the backside of the ninth to chop the rating to 14-7, and Lorusso singled in Shliger so as to add one other. The temporary little bit of enjoyable ended when Matt Shaw struck out after, finalizing the loss at 14-8.

“We’ve bought to discover a strategy to execute, reduce the center and provides us an opportunity late,” Vaughn mentioned, lamenting a second straight week having botched a sweep alternative.

The Terps will play the ultimate sport of their prolonged homestand on Tuesday in a rematch towards Georgetown at 6 p.m.

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