Maryland baseball traveled to Champaign, Illinois, for its second Big Ten road series of the year. Maryland entered the weekend searching for its first weekend series win this season. The Terps’ first game was scheduled for Friday evening, but was postponed due to rainy conditions causing them to play a doubleheader on Saturday.
Game 1: Illinois wins, 7-4, at 10 a.m.
Kyle McCoy started the game on the mound replacing his usual Friday assignment with a Saturday morning outing. McCoy led the team with a 2.79 ERA entering the game and only allowed over three earned runs once this season.
The southpaw struggled at the start of the game. McCoy allowed the first two batters he faced to get on base and then a wild pitch moved them into scoring position. After recording his first out, a passed ball under the glove of Alex Calarco allowed the runners to advance and gave the Illini an early lead. Illinois’ left fielder Vytas Valincius added to the first inning scoring with an RBI double into left field.
McCoy settled in after the inning retiring Illinois in order in the second inning all via the strikeout. Through the next three innings McCoy only allowed three baserunners.
Despite the improved pitching performance, Maryland’s offense couldn’t muster any offense. The Terps were held scoreless over the first three innings putting six men on base, but failed to drive any of them home. Maryland scored its first run of the game in the fourth inning after a weak dribbler off the bat of Elijah Lambros got past the pitcher allowing Jacob Orr to touch home. The score cut Illinois’ lead in half.
The Illini responded in the bottom of the fifth adding two more runs to their lead. The first three Illinois batters all reached base and with the help of another passed ball and wild pitch two of those three runners scored. McCoy was replaced by reliever Andrew Johnson following the second run and the lefty bullpen arm got Maryland out of the inning.
The Terps’ lineup added to their score with three runs in the top of the seventh reducing their deficit to one run. Jacob Orr plated two of those runs with a triple into the right field gap and then scored the third on a passed ball.
The score stayed that way until Illinois scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth against reliever Jack Wren providing enough cushion for Zach Bates to earn his second save of the season in the top of the ninth.
Game 2: Illinois wins, 15-3, in eight innings at 8 p.m.
Following about a six hour layoff, Maryland and Illinois went back to the ballpark to complete the doubleheader.
Freshman Logan Hastings started the game for Maryland after a disappointing outing his last time out against Northwestern. Hastings only lasted an inning against the Wildcats allowing six earned runs and nine baserunners. This outing wasn’t much better.
Hastings gave up five earned runs and never made it out of the first inning. Maryland’s Saturday starter recorded only one out (a strikeout) and allowed four of the six batters he faced to reach base via a walk or hit-by-pitch. Devin Milberg entered the game after Collin Jennings turned an RBI single into an inside the park home run — due to an error by Aden Hill in right field — and got the Terps out of the inning allowing two more of Hasting’s runs to score.
Maryland’s bats struggled again being held scoreless through the first three innings. The Terps scored once in the fourth inning due to a passed ball, but couldn’t muster up anything else. Maryland did score in the sixth and seventh, but by then Illinois accumulated a lead that was too insurmountable.
The Illini finished the game with 15 hits and seven walks. They scored off of all but two of Maryland’s relievers and left nine men on the basepaths. Jack Zebig’s three run homer in the bottom of the eighth provided Illinois with the walk-off victory by way of the Big Ten’s run rule.
The Terps ended the day scoring seven runs on a total 13 hits throughout the day. Maryland’s pitching allowed 24 hits between the two games in addition to 14 walks.
The Terps will try to salvage the series with a win on Sunday.
