Maryland’s baseball closed the door on USF in taking their first series of the 2023 season on Sunday afternoon, following up Saturday’s 8-1 throttling with a dominant 9-5 showing in their third and final matchup.
The Terps made up for a nail-biting 8-7 loss on Friday night with back-to-back wins by a total of eleven runs. Sunday started off back and forth as teams traded early scores, but the Terps broke away in the fifth inning when Ian Petrutz hit Maryland’s third grand slam of the series to push the lead to 8-2, and the Bulls never truly got back into the game from that point on.
“Professional win today, Maryland coach Rob Vaughn said. “I don’t think we were our best today, which is part of the growing pains of the beginning of the season, but Nate [Haberthier] did a good job. It starts with him, and then your best player doing best player-type things in Matt Shaw.”
Vaughn opted to place right-hander Nate Haberthier on the mound for Maryland’s series finale. The Ohio State transfer most recently put up a 6.75 ERA through 13 starts and was tasked with following up Nick Dean’s dominant six-inning one-hitter.
A fellow Nick, though, headlined yesterday’s game. Nick Lorusso smacked a grand slam when already up three runs in the seventh inning, sealing Maryland’s 8-1 win to tie the series 1-1.
Lorusso immediately added to his RBI count on Sunday afternoon, with a first-inning pop-up sending home Luke Shliger from third. Last year, he drove in 70 RBI, third most in the Big Ten, and this made for his fifth in ten at-bats.
Haberthier had a tough first at-bat, which saw him serve a meatball to Daniel Cantu. The leadoff man took advantage of the hanging pitch, sending a towering shot well over the right field wall to tie the game at one apiece to kick off the bottom of the first. Marcus Brodil grounded into a double play later that inning, but the man on third still tagged up to put the lead into the hands of USF.
USF’s Austin Grause exhibited great control, at one point retiring seven Maryland batters in a row, but the Terps shook it off to get back in the game. Luke Shliger sent a stinger back to the warning track for a double, his first hit of the season, and Matt Shaw delivered on the opportunity by tattooing the first home run of the day and his first of 2023. Not long after they lost it, the Terps took back the lead, 3-2 in the third inning.
Haberthier looked to get a better hold on FSU as the game progressed, eliciting contact with batted balls, occasionally finding gaps in the defense. Middle infielders Shaw and Kevin Keister continued to impress defensively, locating liners to protect the Maryland pitcher from more baserunners. He showed an ability to get himself out of jams, which helped him pitch for longer.
Eddie Hacopian rocketed a second solo homer to start the fourth inning, making the first baseman the fifth player to hit a home run in just three games as he pushed the lead to 4-2. The Cypress University transfer hit .387 with 23 RBI in merely 41 games last year, and has slotted in comfortably at fifth in Maryland’s lineup.
The Bulls tapped into their bullpen early, inserting Tyler Dietz to take over for Grause after only three and a third innings. As had been the pattern throughout the series, FSU used a long rotation of relievers in the innings to follow, putting in Lawson Gailey when Dietz got in a bind.
The top of the Maryland lineup, which hadn’t quite shown out in the two games prior, continued to show out, with Shaw getting his third straight hit of the day in the fifth inning to once again send the runner, Elijah Lambros, to third. A Lorusso walk loaded the bases for Ian Petrutz, who punished the ball for Maryland’s third grand slam in as many games off the freshman Gailey. This doubled their score to 8-2 in the top of the fifth, already tying Saturday’s run count.
“Another grand slam, we’ll take that,” Vaughn said. “We’re on pace for 56, which I like.”
Nigel Belgrave took over for Haberthier to start the sixth. Much like Maryland ace Jason Savacool on Friday’s season opener, Sunday’s starter made up for a tough start. He gave up two earned runs, both in the first inning, and collected four strikeouts over five innings en route to collecting his first Maryland win of the season.
The Terps looked to be coasting heading into the bottom of the seventh, giving Tommy Kane a turn on the mound, but the righty reliever struggled immediately. He relented two base runners before a Drew Brutcher home run gave USF a huge life, cutting the lead in half as they then only trailed 8-5.
The next time the Bulls stepped up to the plate, though, a different reliever was waiting for them on the bump. Kenny Lippman made quick work of USF to send the game into the ninth inning. Matt Shaw got his fifth hit of the afternoon on a double to drive in Shliger, adding one more to Maryland’s lead for good measure. Lippman returned to close out the ninth, icing the 9-5 win.
The Terps demonstrated a terrifyingly versatile offense as they put up 24 runs, including six home runs and three grand slams, against USF after initially trailing 0-1 in the series.
“There’s something to be able to hit when the money’s on the table,” Vaughn said. “The best hitters do that. The best teams and the best offenses can hit when it matters. If you can drive the baseball when there’s money on the table, that’s what’s gonna be huge for us.”
Maryland will return back to College Park in the days to follow as they prepare for their home opener against West Virginia on Tuesday.
