Photo courtesy of Ian Cox/Maryland Terrapins
The Terps offense was shut out for the first time this year as they end a disappointing weekend in Seattle only putting up two runs a game.
Maryland baseball (12-11, 2-3 Big Ten) fell to the Washington Huskies (10-14, 3-2) 2-0 as the Terps offense could not generate anything in their fourth rubber-match loss this season.
Freshman Jake Yeager makes his first weekend start for the Terps in a freshman pitcher battle. Yeager has been the midweek starter for the Terps in his four starts so far this season. He came into the game against the Huskies with 17 innings pitched and a 4.76 ERA.
Yeager was named the 2024 Gatorade Player of the Year in Maryland and is now pitching for his home state’s college and getting his first opportunity in conference play, a big moment for the freshman.
For the second time in a row, a Terps freshman starter had a great outing as Yeager ended with 4.2 innings pitched and only allowed three hits and two earned runs. He was able to control the Huskies’ contact leading to seven ground outs and five flyouts.
He did get pulled relatively early as he started the midweek game for the Terps, where he pitched three innings, so the coaching staff wanted to monitor Yeager’s pitches.
They also had a rejuvenated pitching staff to lean back on as the Terps only used six pitchers in the first two games of the series.
Yeager collected a loss for today’s game as the low-scoring affair made his two runs the only runs of the game.
On the other side of the freshman battle, Justin Tims went to work for the Huskies. Tims, like Yeager, made his first weekend start of the season coming up from the midweek starter position.
Tims started in three of his five appearances with nine innings pitched and a nine ERA.
He did not look like he had an ERA of nine during his outing against the Terps, however, as he pitched through 5.2 scoreless innings. He kept pounding the strike zone, allowing him to get ahead of the Terps batters and collect five strikeouts.
The Huskies, who allowed almost six runs a game coming into the weekend series against the Terps, have limited the Terps to just six runs throughout the entire season.
The Terps offense once again fell short as they ended with zero runs on six hits.
They stranded all eight of their base runners which has been a growing concern for the team as they have left opportunities on the board in their big series. This is something that head coach Matt Swope has been drilling into his players, the importance of these at-bats.
Today it seemed like the Terps couldn’t get ahead in any of the innings, on their last three opportunities they waited until they already got their second out before getting two players on base.
The Huskies manufactured two runs in the third and fifth innings. In both innings, they got a lead-off runner on second base, moved them to third base with either a bunt or flyout, and then scored on an RBI groundout.
This is something the Terps restricted themselves from doing by getting behind in their offensive innings, they relied too much on their batters just making play after play.
Another freshman, Cristofer Cespedes, came into the game following Yeager’s outing and he finished the game strongly. Cespedes pitched 3.1 innings, just shy of his career-high at South Florida, and he continued his hot streak by striking out four batters, allowing zero hits and only walking one.
Cespedes, who was the number one pitcher in the state of New York according to Perfect Game, hasn’t allowed a run since his first outing in Western Carolina. He had an ERA of 1.04 in seven appearances before Sunday’s game.
The Terps have now lost their fourth three-game series of the year, all of which came down to the rubber game, and are still searching for their first.
They will have their second chance to play a series at home next weekend against Northwestern where they are hoping they can change the trends that have so far riddled their season.
But before that, they have a midweek game at home against George Mason on Tuesday where they will be looking for a turnaround win.
