By Gill Vesely
Coming off a 7-2 loss to the High Point Panthers Friday afternoon, the Maryland Terrapins looked to rebound in the second game of the series Saturday on their home field.
Rebound they most certainly did, putting 13 runs on the board to tie the series at one game apiece.
Starting Terps pitcher Taylor Bloom gave up a hit in the top of the first to Panthers leadoff hitter Hunter Lee, but the Maryland defense then turned a double play to erase the baserunner. A sliding catch by Madison Nickens got Bloom and the Terps out of the inning unharmed.
Nickens drew a walk from Panthers right-hander Andre Scrubb to start off Maryland’s offense in the bottom half on the first inning. Nick Dunn followed Nickens’ lead, putting runners on first and second for the Terps. Maryland’s Marty Costes reached on a fielder’s choice, pushing Nickens to third. A wild pitch allowed Nickens to score, giving the Terps an early 1-0 lead.
An untimely High Point fielding error with two outs in the first and the bases loaded gave the Terps three more runs to put them up 4-0 going into the second.
“That was, arguably, the play of the game,” Maryland head coach John Szefc said after the contest. “That guy drops that pop up, it gives us a big inning. He doesn’t drop the pop up, it’s 1-nothing going into the second, [and] it’s a whole different game. They clearly never really recovered from that.”
Bloom shut out the Panthers’ offense in the top of the second, keeping High Point scoreless. The Terps, meanwhile, took more walks from Scrubb, and found themselves with the bases loaded with two outs in the inning. Scrubb walked home a run and was pulled from the game after giving four balls to Kevin Biondic and putting the Terps up 5-0.
Michael Hennessey came in to pitch for the Panthers but fell victim to the same troubles as Scrubb, walking Kevin Smith, the first batter he faced, and giving the Terps another run. Maryland led 6-0 through two complete innings.
Lee found some magic with another hit to start High Point’s half of the third, but Bloom got Chris Clare to ground out to end the inning.
Andrew Bechtold got on for the Terps with a single in the bottom of the third, then stole second to get in scoring position with one out. He would come around to score on a Dunn single to left field, giving the Terps a 7-0 edge.
Nick Cieri copied Dunn with a single to left, driving home another Maryland run. The Terps’ offense continued to spark with a Costes home run that sent two home and gave the Terps a 10-0 lead through three innings.
The Panthers were again held scoreless in the fourth and, for the first half inning of the game, so were the Terps, keeping the score at 10-0 to start the fifth.
High Point was able to string some hits together in the top half of the fifth, loading the bases with one out in the frame. They would get on the board after Lee doubled to right field, scoring two and putting it at 10-2 into the bottom half of the inning.
Matt Hodges took the mound for the Panthers in the fifth but, as his predecessors had done nine times previously, gave up a walk. Costes then went deep again, his two-run shot putting the Terps back up 10 at 12-2. Maryland’s Anthony Papio added to the Terps’ lead via an RBI double with one out in the inning. The home team led 13-2 with five innings gone.
The Panthers chipped away in the top half of the sixth. Dominic Fazio scored on a bloop hit by Austen Zente, then Josh Greene added another run off a Drew Fopeano single, making it 13-4, Terps. Left-hander Rob Galligan came in to pitch for Bloom with two outs in the inning. He got the Terps out of the frame still up nine.
Maryland went hitless in the bottom of the sixth, marking just their second scoreless inning of the game to that point. Clare recorded a double in the top of the seventh, but was left on base, keeping the tally at 13-4. Maryland was also scoreless in the seventh.
Greene made it 13-5 with a solo homer off Terps pitcher Andrew Miller to open the top of the eighth. That would be the extent of the damage for the Panthers, sending the Terps to the bottom of the inning up eight.
A quiet half inning from the home team left the score at 13-5 into the ninth. Maryland freshman AJ Lee, in at third for Bechtold, recorded all three outs in the top of the inning to hold the Panthers and seal the 13-5 victory for the Terps.
“Coach Szefc always talks about answering, whether success or failure,” Costes said. “I think we always have done a good job of answering, even when we struggled. As long as we can continue to do that, we’ll be a good team.”
The Terps look to get another win when they close out the series Sunday at 1 p.m.
