Maryland baseball trailed by four runs twice in its Tuesday night battle with Georgetown.
In the first occurrence — the fifth inning — the Terps worked two runs to cut the deficit in half.
The second time it happened — the ninth frame — Maryland came all the way back, proving to be clutch in the biggest moment of the night. Luke Shliger brought in two runs with a single, and Nick Lorusso brought in two more on a double, forcing extra innings.
But the Hoyas struck in the top of the tenth, and the Terps could not respond.
Every time the Maryland offense got back into the game, the pitching faltered, forcing the lineup to work from behind all night long. The seesaw nature of Maryland’s bats and arms allowed Georgetown (18-15) to pull out a 10-9 win in 10 innings, spoiling another home midweek game for the Terps (19-13).
“We couldn’t we couldn’t string more than two or three [at-bats] together,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “I don’t know if it’s a focus thing, I don’t know if it was just hey, they made pitches in big spots…they were just much better when it mattered.”
Junior Nate Haberthier, who hadn’t thrown since the Iowa series two weekends ago, got hit hard out of the gates. Maryland fell behind early in the first inning, as Haberthier three runs on three hits and a walk.
Haberthier didn’t seem comfortable on the mound and Vaughn must have noticed, removing the right-hander from the action after just 2.2 innings and 45 pitches. Even though Haberthier threw a routine second inning and recorded two outs in the third, the Hoyas maintained consistent hard contact and seemed ready to pounce at any moment with some big hits.
Vaughn chose to jump on the issue early, replacing Haberthier with fifth-year right-hander Kenny Lippman. Lippman inherited two runners with two outs and struck out his first batter faced to end the inning and prevent any substantial damage.
Lippman entered in a 3-2 deficit as the Maryland offense produced two first-inning runs courtesy of sophomore designated hitter Ian Petrutz. The lefty slugger, in his first at-bat back from an eye injury that held him out for a week, didn’t seem to have any issues with his vision, crushing a ball over the fence in left-center field to bring in two runners.
The Georgetown hitters got the best of Lippman in the fifth frame after a scoreless fourth, going for three runs on two long balls. Vaughn pulled the plug on his reliever following the second homer, a bomb over the elevated center-field fence that extended the Georgetown lead to four runs.
“That game wasn’t lost there in the 10th [inning], Vaughn said. “That game was lost in the fourth or fifth when you’re giving up those runs and don’t cash in when we need to.”
But the Maryland offense once again proved to be resilient, working two more runs in the bottom of the fifth. After a Petrutz walk and a Bobby Zmarzlak single, sophomore first baseman Eddie Hacopian brought both home with a double to left field, cutting the Hoyas’ lead to 6-4.
The offense continued to chip away in the sixth frame, bringing home one more run courtesy of Lorusso on an RBI groundout, making the score 6-5.
The back-and-forth affair continued in the top of the seventh, when junior left-hander Tommy Kane allowed back-to-back home runs with one out, giving the Hoyas a three-run lead.
After redshirt junior right-hander David Falco Jr. threw a 1-2-3 eighth, the Maryland bats found itselves in an advantageous spot to start the bottom half of the frame. Junior second baseman Kevin Keister and Shliger both reached base, setting up Maryland’s best bats — Lorusso and junior shortstop Matt Shaw — with no outs.
But the next three batters went down in order. Maryland still trailed 8-5 heading into the final inning.
Falco allowed a run to score in the top of the ninth, growing Georgetown’s lead back to four. The bats came up with slim hopes, but against all odds, they got back into it.
Shliger smacked a two-run single to right field with the bases juiced and two outs, and Lorusso hit next with the tying runner on first. The former Villanova product, calm and poised, hit a rocket to left. The ball deflected off the glove of the left fielder, and in dramatic fashion, both runners scored to tie the game at nine.
After a Shaw intentional walk, Petrutz struck out to send the game to extra innings.
Sophomore right-hander Ryan Van Buren allowed the final run in the 10th, and the bats couldn’t mount another comeback from behind.
The Terps left 13 batters on base on the evening, failing to capitalize with runners in scoring position. Their fight was commendable, consistently clawing back from deficits and working the game until the end. But they ran out of gas in extras, ultimately suffering their second-straight midweek loss.
“I’m not going to talk about, ‘Hey, last year we did this, last year we did that,’ because it is a new team,” Vaughn said. “I know it’s a lot of the same faces but it is a new team. We just haven’t been consistent enough…we can’t go out and lose on a Tuesday at home.”
