Maryland baseball cruises to 8-3 win over Bryant

With two men in scoring position and one out, Bryant sought to cut into the Terps’ 3-0 lead.

The Terps were backed by their starting pitching against Bryant, as they used just two pitchers who combined for 15 strikeouts. On offense, the Terps found their consistency again, scoring in each of their first four innings before blowing the game wide open in the fifth inning to put the game away.

Maryland baseball got a first-inning lead and led from there on out, defeating Bryant Friday night, 8-3.

Starting pitcher Kenny Lippman stayed calm to end the third inning with a strikeout and a flyout to end the threat and allow Maryland to continue to add to its lead.

Lippman was dominant for the Terps, going six innings and producing nine strikeouts on 102 pitches. He allowed just one run, none earned on three hits. Lippman’s nine strikeouts gave him a new career-high h as a Terp.

“[I] felt more comfortable,” Lippman said. “Felt like [my] stuff was a lot sharper today.” 

Trystan Sarcone picked up right where Lippman left off when he came in relief to start the seventh inning. He finished the game for the Terps, striking out six batters and allowing one earned run on two hits. Maryland has consistently been able to use as few pitchers as possible at home, using just seven pitchers through their first three home games. The two pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts.

Maryland’s day off between its game against VCU and Bryant seemed to allow the offense to regain its consistency, scoring one run in each of the first four innings. The Terps got RBIs from four different players on seven hits, giving them an early 4-0 lead.

“Scoring every inning puts a lot of pressure on the other team,” coach Matt Swope said. “When you do that on Friday night and you get a good start, you’re just going to wear the other team down, and we didn’t really give them much opportunity to build something up.”

Brandyn Durand just missed hitting one over the fence in center field to begin the fifth. But his lead-off double would allow the Bulldogs to get on the board after scoring on a groundout to first.

But Maryland would respond in the fifth. A pair of hits from Elijah Lambros and Eddie Hacopian gave Maryland three runs and their first multi-run inning of the game. Chris Hacopian added another run for the Terps late in the inning on a scorching line drive down the third base line, putting Maryland up 8-1.

“We’ve had some really good offense the past three or four years…but the bases loaded seems like our Achilles heel,” Swope said. “It’s all about those moments in the game of not getting nervous and not making it more than it is. So the more we can relax,…we’ll cash in a little bit more.”

Trystan Sarcone came in to relieve Lippman in the seventh, and it appeared that he would get out if the inning ended cleanly after Kevin Keister made an incredible diving play on a ground ball. However, Eddie Hacopian couldn’t complete the plat after dropping the scoop, allowing the Bulldogs to cut the deficit to six.

The Bulldogs would start the ninth inning with a home run, but the Terps were able to limit the damage to just one run, ending the game in a double play.