Pitching and fielding issues have haunted Maryland baseball’s potent offense this season, and Saturday against Purdue was no different.
The Biolermakeers erupted for eight runs in the first two innings — with only three being earned to Maryland starter Evan Smith — putting Maryland in an early seven-run deficit.
The much-maligned bullpen did its job, though and gave Maryland a chance. The Terps scored five unanswered runs, but it was too little too late, falling 8-6 to Purdue and clinching a series loss.
Maryland looked to attack the left-handed Purdue starter Zach Erdman with the lineup loaded with six right-handed batters.
“You’ll see more of the matchup play, probably starting this weekend, head coach Matt Swope said. “My lineup isn’t gonna probably look the way it would Saturday and Sunday.”
Bud Coombs and Colin Gibbs both returned to the lineup to bolster the right-handed representation in the lineup. They combined for seven hits and four RBI’s.
Erdman gave up seven hits and four runs in four innings. David Mendez went deep in the first followed by a three-run third inning looking like Maryland’s lineup changes paid off.
The Terps offense was probing, but defensively, they were close to abysmal, committing four errors on the day.
“It’s just embarrassing,” Swope said. “It’s as simple as that. It’s embarrassing. We punch back a little bit there at the end, but we can’t catch a fly ball in the outfield or the infield. It’s once again, I keep talking about, it’s hard to actually evaluate the baseball game when we’re just talking about things like that.”
After a leadoff double, Ali Banks stole home in the top of the first for the Boilermakers. It came after Bud Coombs appeared to lose a ball in the sun in center field. Purdue then executed a first and third steal that saw Banks cross the plate.
A dropped pop fly with two outs by Colin Gibbs saw five runs cross unearned after Smith gave up two runs prior to make a seven-run second for Purdue.
Only three of Smith’s eight runs allowed were earned.
“You can’t evaluate [Smith’s performance] once again,” Smith said. “They had one barrel on the home run, maybe a decent swing. Besides that, I didn’t, I didn’t see a lot of really good contact. I was super happy with the start.”
Despite the many mistakes the Terps made, they had many opportunities to get back into the game. They left the bases loaded in the fifth and then stranded two more runners in the sixth.
In the seventh, the Terps offense woke up again. Coombs drove in another run with a double and then a wild pitch saw another run plated as the Terps were able to cut the lead to two.
Brayden Ryan came in and was heroic for the Terps’ bullpen. After the implosion in game one of this series, Ryan came in and pitched five innings of shutout ball, keeping the Terps’ offense in check.
They once again left another runner on in the eighth in David Mendez to keep the lead at two runs.
The Terps went down 1-2-3 in the ninth to put the nail in the coffin.
