Maryland baseball started the ninth inning trailing by a run. Freshmen Jordan Crosland and Brayden Martin reached base on a walk and a hit by pitch. Eddie Hacopian stood at the plate with two runners on and, without registering a hit, the Terps took the lead.
The Mountaineers recorded two errors in the top of the ninth inning losing to the Maryland Terrapins, 6-4, Tuesday afternoon.
The first error came as Eddie was just getting comfortable in the box. The pitch from Mount St. Mary’s reliever, J. T. Landwehr, went past the catcher Joey Agar. The passed ball allowed the pair of Maryland freshmen to advance into scoring position. Landwehr followed that with a wild pitch later in the Hacopian at-bat that got behind the catcher, tying the game at four.
Eddie got a pitch he could handle and hit a deep fly ball to center field. The ball went deep enough that it would have scored the speedy Martin from third, but the Terps didn’t even need to worry about the slight possibility it wouldn’t. Mountaineer center fielder, Evan Smith, had trouble finding the well hit ball and couldn’t make the grab. Mount St. Mary’s second error gave Maryland its first lead.
The Terps only hit of the inning was from the captain Kevin Keister who drove in Eddie to give closer Alex Walsh some extra room for error. Walsh retired the side in order, earning his first collegiate save.
Maryland’s offense struggled through the first six innings. The Terps put nine runners on base and failed to bring any of them across the plate. The Mountaineers had four pitchers take the mound throughout the six innings giving up only three hits and striking out seven.
Terps’ starter Ryan Van Buren started his first game away from College Park this season and threw five innings allowing one earned run. The run came in the first inning on a home run from Scott Seeker, his first of the season. Van Buren ended his outing giving up a total of four hits with one strikeout and one walk.
Omar Melendez relieved Van Buren to start the sixth inning and was met with a Mountaineer homer of his own this time from Tyler Long who hit his second home run in as many games. Melendez gave up two more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on an RBI single from Shane Wockley, ending the scoring during Melendez’s outing.
Those two runs from Mount St. Mary’s came right after Maryland tied the game in the top half of the inning. Martin and Eddie Hacopian had the two RBIs in the seventh, Martin’s on a hit and Eddie’s on a double play. Maryland added one run in the eighth setting up its game clinching three run top of the ninth.
The win brings Maryland’s in streak to three and the Terps have yet to lose on Tuesday this season. Maryland’s only mid-week loss this season was to VCU on a Wednesday.
The Dirty Terps will play their upcoming weekend series on the road against Portland in the Pacific northwest.
