By Megan Smedley
The Maryland Baseball team traveled to Minnesota for a weekend Big Ten series. Maryland once again changed up the rotation, bumping Mike Shawaryn back to Sunday, meaning Taylor Bloom would get the Friday night start. In the second inning, Marty Costes scored on a throwing error to get the team out to an early lead. Madison Nickens smashed a solo shot to right in the fifth inning. That homerun was Nickens’ sixth of the year. Andrew Bechtold extended the Terps lead in the sixth with an RBI single. Coming off his complete game-shutdown against Ohio State, Bloom struggled a bit only going five and two-thirds allowing two runs on six hits. Minnesota got on the board the sixth inning with a couple of extra-base hits, ending Bloom’s night. Things fell apart for the Terps in the eighth inning. Minnesota put up seven runs on seven hits and Maryland had to go through pitchers just to get through the inning. Maryland dropped the first game of the series, 9-5.
Head coach John Szefc took Friday’s loss as a reason to switch up the lineup for Saturday’s game. Zach Jancarski started in center and Dan Maynard was the designated hitter, giving Anthony Papio and Justin Morris the day off. Brian Shaffer was on the mound for the Terps hoping to have a repeat dominant performance. Kevin Smith put the Terps on top in the second inning with a two-run double down the left field line. Madison Nickens later scored on a wild pitch to put to Terps up 3-0 and Marty Costes scored in the eighth inning off a balk. Shaffer ran into trouble in the bottom of the eighth inning allowing two runs off of four singles. Mike Rescigno came in for the ninth to close things out for the Terps. Maryland won game two 4-2, to even up the series.
Ace Mike Shawaryn was on the mound Sunday for the rubber match. Anthony Papio put the Terps on the board in the second inning with an RBI triple to right-center field scoring Costes. Papio then would score on a groundout by Bechtold. Kevin Biondic extended the lead in the third inning hitting his fifth homerun of the year, a two-run shot to left field, bringing the Terps lead to 4-0. Shawaryn ran into trouble in seventh inning as Minnesota had the bases loaded with no outs. An error by catcher Nick Cieri, scored two runs. Minnesota followed up with a ground-rule double, cutting the lead to one and ending Shawaryn’s outing. Rob Galligan came into pitch and was able to get out of the inning. Tayler Stiles pitched the eighth inning but ran into quick trouble. Minnesota took the lead following a Kevin Smith error and a wild pitch. The Terps were unable to mount the comeback in the ninth and fell to Minnesota, 6-4. With this loss, Maryland falls to 19-17 overall (5-4 Big Ten). The team has the week off with plenty of time to practice leading up to a home series against Purdue.
