Maryland baseball brought home the bacon in their Friday night Big Ten home opener, topping Rutgers in a 6-4 duel. The Terps at several points trailed, but timely hitting and strong pitching secured the win.
Nick Lorusso’s three-run jack in the seventh inning gave Maryland exactly what it needed with runners on base, granting his team a 6-3 lead they wouldn’t give up. This completely turned the tides for the Terps, who had failed to string together hits early.
Jason Savacool’s typically steady hand slipped in the first inning when he relented two runs, but he shook off the erratic start to turn in 6.2 rock-solid frames of pitching. The regular Friday starter gutted the night out over 118 pitches, a career-high, and outlasted Rutgers’ counterpart Grant Besser to personally improve to 4-3 on the season.
“Jason did a great job tonight,” Maryland coach Rob Vaughn said. “It took him a little while to settle in. Once he settled in it was efficient, it was quick. I mean, he threw almost 40 pitches in the first inning and ended up pitching into the seventh… speaks to how he competed.”
The Terps (18-11, 3-1 in Big Ten) found themselves coming off rare consecutive losses entering the weekend after defeats to Iowa and William & Mary. This has not been representative of their success of late, though, as they’ve taken 13 of their last 15 matchups, including five-straight leading into last Sunday.
The visiting Scarlet Knights (15-14, 1-3 in Big Ten), conversely, have demonstrated recent success despite largely having treaded water all spring. Winners of their last two, Rutgers lost their only conference series of the season against Michigan State last weekend, unlike Maryland, who recently took two games off formerly ranked Iowa.
Maryland turned to its ace in Savacool for the series opener, but the typically reliable righty let up two runs in his first frame of work on two hits and three walks. After the rocky start, he soon regained his composure by getting through his next two innings through the minimum six batters..
Bobby Zmarzlak put in the work on the basepaths in the second inning, first getting plunked in the box before stealing second and third on an infield throwing error. Kevin Keister drove the outfielder home with a sac-fly right after, getting the Terps on the board.
Ryan Lasko rifled a no-doubt home run in the fifth to improve Rutgers’ lead to 3-1, which interrupted Savacool having quietly salvaged his outing. It was his first earned run since that costly first inning, and the starter went on to pitch 1.2 more positive frames for the Terps before leaving in the seventh.
“When he’s in a groove, he’s working quick…I’m getting a lot of ground balls, so it’s good,” Shaw said.
Matt Shaw came right back with a laser homer in the bottom of the sixth, breathing life into a stagnant Maryland offense after three-straight scoreless innings. That was enough to chase the dangerous Besser from the mound, and Zmarzlak found home plate once again on yet another errant infield throw to tie the game at three.
“Bob can really run,” Vaughn said. “You’re down one middle-late in the game, he gets a jump and has the guts to go, they throw the ball away, we score to tie it. That was a turning point in the game.”
Nick Lorusso blew the game wide open in the very next frame when he hammered a homer over the batter’s eye in the seventh with two runners on base. Rutgers pitcher Garrett French responded by throwing a pitch over Matt Shaw’s head in the very next at-bat, netting him a warning from the umpire. The Terps entered the eighth leading 6-3 after doubling their score with one swing of the bat.
The Maryland relief crew allowed a run in the eighth to cut the lead to 6-4, but the scoring soon stopped after Nigel Belgrave put out multiple fires in the final pair of innings. The Terps held off some late Rutgers threats, and took the home opener to return back to the win column.
“Today’s game was the most important game of the year for us,” Shaw said. “Coming out here and getting that win was huge.”
Maryland will get their chance to take the series tomorrow at 3 p.m.
