Matt Shaw’s 3-3 day catapulted Maryland baseball to a third-straight Friday win against Ohio State, as the 7-5 victory made for the Terps’ 20th of the season.
Terps and Buckeyes struggled alike with runners on base, evidenced in their leaving 10 and 12 runners stranded, respectively. What’s more, the Terps only mustered five hits, with the only three besides Shaw arriving through a Shliger leadoff bomb and an Elijah Lambros single. When Ohio State cut Maryland’s lead to one in the seventh, Shaw came right back with a three-run homer to grant the Terps the breathing room to survive a ninth inning Buckeyes rally.
Friday night stud Jason Savacool, the consummate workhorse, turned in a six inning long, 109 pitch outing. It wasn’t one of his best performances, but he relentlessly prevented the Buckeyes from capitalizing on baserunners. Four of Ohio State’s five runs were scored against Maryland’s spotty relief crew.
The Terps (20-13, 5-2 in Big Ten) entered the weekend having lost a second straight Tuesday game, which was emblematic of their 2-4 record over their last six games. They dropped a close one to Georgetown on the 11th, with a four-run ninth inning coming up just short in a 10-9 extra-innings loss. In the greater scheme, the Terps have yet to lose a Big Ten series, but back-to-back Sunday defeats robbed the team of two sweeps against Iowa and Rutgers.
Ohio State (17-16, 2-8 in Big Ten) hasn’t experienced nearly the same in-conference success. The Buckeyes were flying high until they got hammered in a weekend sweep at the hands of Indiana, and have yet to take a series after being throttled by Minnesota and Michigan State. Their conference record has come as a result of their being at the wrong end of numerous blowouts, but the Buckeyes seemed to have regained their stride in recent midweek victories against Akron and Bowling Green.
Maryland wasted no time getting to Ohio State starter Gavin Bruni, as Luke Shliger went yard on the second pitch he saw for his fourth dinger home run of the spring. The Terps remained active, drawing three more walks to load the bases, but Zach Martin grounded into first to strand three.
Both Bruni and Maryland starter Savacool traded dirty innings to start their evenings, as the two each allowed baserunners but prevented changes in the score. Bruni was pulled first after 2.1 innings, with his final inning on the mound being summarized in a Shaw hit, a Shaw steal at second, a double play to give Shaw a free pass to third and finally a Shaw steal at home plate to take a 2-0 lead in the third. Maryland’s mobile shortstop moved to 13/14 on stolen bag attempts this season after almost single handedly manufacturing a trip around the bases, enough to lead his team by a substantial margin.
Ohio State’s offense, which had been putting together solid stretches of contact without the results to match, broke through in the fourth with a Henry Kaczmar homer to cut Maryland’s lead to one. Savacool responded with snagging his fifth and sixth strikeouts of the game, closing the fourth inning before the Buckeyes could do any more damage.
The Terps responded with a two-run fifth inning to extend the score to 4-1, all without a hit. The heart of Maryland’s order each drew walks to load the bases once again before anyone got out, with a Hacopian pop-out and a pitcher throwing error at first allowing the visiting team to convert.
Savacool gutted out another deep six-inning performance, finishing with seven strikeouts over 109 pitches. He showed flashes of fatigue in his final frame, and then turned his ankle before coach Vaughn determined he could stay in the game. The pitcher sealed his fifth scoreless inning after two runners made their way into scoring position,
Tommy Kane entered in relief, and looked highly competent against his first two batters before he buckled under the Ohio State pressure. Kaczmar struck again with a two RBI double to bring the deficit within one, but Matt Shaw came through once again in the top of the eighth with a three-run slam to take a weighty 7-4 lead.
The back-and-forth series opener couldn’t conclude without one more late inning thrill, as the Terps granted the Buckeyes a sliver of a chance down the stretch. Nigel Belgrave cruised through the majority of the final two innings, but found himself stuck in quicksand with two outs gone in the ninth. He relented a two-run single up the middle to Mitchell Okuley before being yanked for David Falco Jr., who secured the necessary out, and thus the save.
One detail that was almost amidst all the late inning action was Nick Lorusso going a quiet 0-4 at the plate, officially ending his streak of games with a hit at 31 for the program record.
For the third weekend in a row, the Terps will have a chance to take the series in two games tomorrow at 2 p.m.
