Photo courtesy of Dylan Davies/Maryland Terrapins
With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth and base loaded, Ryan Pruitt hit a deep ball to center field and over the head of Elijah Lambros.
The juniors’ hit fell for a two-RBI single which brought the Bulls’ lead to 4-2. The Maryland Terrapins (10-8, 1-2 Big Ten) weren’t able to catch up to the South Florida Bulls (7-8) and fell 4-3 in the second game of the doubleheader.
Freshman Logan Hasting starts on the mound for the Terps. The freshman started the year coming out of the bullpen but made two starts before Saturday’s game.
Hastings has played well in his two starts against Wake Forest and UCLA, with eleven innings pitched and only four earned runs.
One of his biggest issues on the mound this season has been throwing balls. It has been inflating his pitch count, and giving up free base runners due to walks. He has 16.1 innings pitched, with a 3.86 ERA, and eight walks allowed.
What Hastings has thrived on so far this season is controlling the batters’ contact, only allowing one extra-base hit.
The Bulls put a change to that after junior Ryan Pruitt hit a lead-off home run in the bottom of the first and junior Matt Rose hit a home run in the third. That was Hastings’ first two home runs allowed this season.
Hastings ended the game with 4.1 innings pitched, allowing four hits including two home runs, three walks, and four earned runs. Hastings’ worst start of the season.
On the Bulls’ side, senior Bradon Keyster got the start on the mound. This was Keystar’s first start of the season. He has come out of the bullpen six times so far this season where he pitched four innings, with an ERA of 11.25.
This was Keystar’s first game pitching more than an inning for the Bulls. He gave them three scoreless innings before coming out for the fourth and collecting two earned runs after being pulled out of the game.
The Terps were able to stack hits in the first game against the Bulls, scoring five runs off of nine innings. In the second meeting, the Terps couldn’t do the same, leaving eight runners on base, a big reason for the offensive struggles.
They were able to capitalize on a pair of hits in the top of the fourth inning, when senior Jacob Orr hit a leadoff single and redshirt sophomore Hollis Porter brought him home with an RBI double. Porter was brought home by a sac fly from freshman Parker Corbin.
Corbin has been a really solid piece for the Terps. He filled in at shortstop as sophomore Chris Hacopian dealt with injury earlier in the season and also has been taking at-bats as a DH after sophomore Michael Iannazzo’s injury.
After Keystar exited the game in the fourth inning, junior Bryce Archie entered for the Bulls. Archie pitched four innings for the Bulls, ending the game with six innings pitched, four strikeouts, only three hits, and one earned run.
Archie is also playing QB at South Florida, but even with that, he has pitched the fourth most innings for South Florida coming into Saturday’s game. He has been the midweek starter for the Bulls so far this season, but the Bulls didn’t have a midweek game this week.
The Bulls took back the lead at the bottom of the fifth inning. Hastings allowed three straight base runners to start the inning after a single, a walk, and a hit-by pitch. Pruitt then followed it with a two-RBI single.
Freshman Cristofer Cespedes came in for Hastings in the bottom of the fifth inning and played through the rest of the game. He finished the game with 3.2 innings pitched, only allowing one hit, adding two strikeouts, and zero earned runs.
Cespedes has been the best pitcher out of the bullpen for the Terps this season, with a 1.93 ERA in five appearances before Saturday’s game.
Orr and Chris Hacopian were the Terps’ best batters today both going 2-for-4, and were two of the three batters to score a run.
The Terps’ now look to the series finale on Sunday to get their first series win of the season.
