Early season pitching struggles have hurt No. 13 Maryland baseball

After falling 8-6 to West Virginia, No. 13 Maryland baseball started the year 2-2 after high expectations following the best year in program history. 

While the offense has done its part to begin the season, averaging 7.5 runs a game, the pitching staff has lagged. 

The Terps have allowed at least five runs in three of their first four games. The result has been a .500 record, with the Terps losing two games in which they scored at least six runs.

Still, pitching coach Mike Morrison is not worrying too much, citing the four-game sample size as too small to judge. 

“I think box scores don’t always tell everything,” Morrison said. “A four-game sample size to judge the pitching staff is kind of a joke, but I’ll bet on those guys any day of the week. Super excited about this year and think we’re going to do something special.”

The pitching struggles started in the season opener, when junior right-hander Jason Savacool allowed a three-run homer in the first inning, putting the Terps at a three-run deficit early. While the Terps stormed back to tie the game in the second, Savacool allowed an RBI double in the third and another home run in the sixth. 

“He got the first few guys out pretty quickly, got a guy to a two-strike count and before you blink three pitches later, we gave up three runs,” Morrison said. “So I think sometimes from a gray area perspective, like not making one pitch can drastically change the whole outing.”

Savacool is the Terps’ ace this season, after posting a 2.93 ERA and an 8-3 record in 2022. Savacool’s play earned him a spot on the All-Big Ten first team, along with numerous All-American honors. 

But the start of his 2023 season was not a good one.

“Jason has been awesome,” Morrison said. “That guy was an All-American last year and he had two outings that were worse than the one he had against South Florida. So, he’s going to be fine.”

In the third and final game against USF, the Terps jumped to a commanding 8-2 lead before a three-run homer made it an 8-5 ballgame in the seventh. Maryland won, but the pitching staff didn’t make it easy.

Of the 20 earned runs allowed in Maryland’s first four games, 11 have come from its starters.

“It’s just college baseball, you have to avoid outings like that,” Morrison said. “We think we got some depth here and we got a little bit more than we had last year which we’re super excited about.”

Most recently, the Terps fell into an early 5-0 deficit in the first inning. Sophomore right-hander Ryan Van Buren allowed four earned runs before getting pulled with one out remaining in the inning, with the fifth run coming on an error of his own. 

Van Buren wasn’t the last Terp to get pulled that inning.

Sophomore left-hander Andrew Johnson entered in relief and allowed three-straight walks — the last of which walked in a row. Johnson was taken out without recording an out. 

The first inning finally commenced with a flyout to right field, but two more West Virginia runs — including a solo home run in the third inning — occurred as the Terps faced a 7-0 deficit before they went one time through the batting order.

“You’re trying to obviously not use three guys in the first — that’s not usually a recipe for success on a Tuesday — but it’s all we had to do,” coach Rob Vaughn said “We just didn’t get it done and ended up having to use seven or eight arms today and it’s not how you drew it up on a Tuesday.”

The one outlier is the second game of the season against USF, where the Terps allowed just one run in a seven-run victory. Senior right-hander Nick Dean was exceptional, allowing only one hit and one walk in six innings, striking out eight. 

Excluding Dean’s start against the Bulls, Maryland is allowing an average of 6.33 earned runs a game. And it’s not like its opponents have not been dominant forces, as USF finished 28-29 and West Virginia finished 33-22 in 2022, both missing postseason play. 

The Terps will be in for a long weekend if their pitching woes continue and they don’t get starts like Dean’s, as they travel to Mississippi to face the defending champions, No. 4 Ole Miss.

The Rebels have jumped to a 4-0 start, averaging 11.5 runs per game. They have yet to score less than 10 runs in a game this season.

“It’s one of the more talented teams we’ve played in a long time,” Vaughn said. “They play the game the right way.”

Savacool will start the series on Friday, looking for a better outing against the potent Rebel offense.