WINSTON-SALEM, NC — Nick Lorusso made a statement early on in the first game of the Winston-Salem NCAA Regional.
He crushed the first pitch of the day that he laid eyes on, sending a ball over the left field wall and getting Maryland baseball on the board in the opening inning.
The statement-making continued in his next at-bat when the third baseman chugged around the artificial turf of David F. Couch Ballpark and legged out his second triple of the season. While it didn’t directly result in a run, Lorusso scored just one batter later from an Ian Petrutz sacrifice fly.
Lorusso then singled in the sixth inning for his second RBI of the night. While he failed to record a double and hit for the cycle, the senior did more than his part, being involved in four of the Terps’ seven runs.
Lorusso’s success and a commendable afternoon by the Terps’ pitching staff were enough to give No. 2-seed Maryland a 7-2 victory over No. 3-seed Northeastern in the first game of the NCAA Regionals.
“[Lorusso’s] just a professional hitter,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “The moment doesn’t get too big … it’s just who he is.”
The two schools faced off in College Park on May 9, when the Huskies ran away with a 9-2 victory. This outing played out differently, as neither side carved out a big lead at any point early in the game.
Lorusso and sophomore first baseman Eddie Hacopian smashed solo homers in the first two innings to give the Terps an early 2-0 advantage.
But Northeastern quickly responded after a quiet first two frames against Maryland starter Jason Savacool. The junior right-hander induced five groundouts and a strikeout for his first six outs but the Huskies began to show life the second time through the order. Spenser Smith, Mike Sirota and Tyler MacGregor worked a two-out rally with a double, a walk and an RBI single to get on the board. Then in the fourth inning, junior catcher Gregory Bozzo hit an RBI single of his own to even the score at two runs.
Sophomore designated hitter Ian Petrutz hit a sac fly in the bottom of the fourth inning to put Maryland back on top, 3-2, and then Lorusso notched an RBI single in the sixth frame for a 4-2 score. Hacopian hit a sac fly in the same inning for Maryland’s fifth run of the game.
Lorusso homered in his initial at-bat, tripled in his second, and singled in his third, knocking on the door of hitting for the cycle in the bottom of the eighth. But he popped out in his final at-bat of the afternoon and fell just short of the feat.
Meanwhile, as Lorusso carried the offensive load for the Terps, Savacool churned out six innings of two-run ball, forcing the Huskies into groundouts and strikeouts all afternoon. The right-hander continued the momentum from his six-inning scoreless outing against Nebraska in the Big Ten tournament last weekend, striking out seven batters while forcing Northeastern into 11 groundouts and giving up just five hits.
“Mixing through the [two-seam and four-seam] fastballs has been a huge change for me throughout this year,” Savacool said, “[…] just to provide a little bit of a different look on the fastballs, which makes the two-seam all that much better.”
The Terps padded on two more runs in the eighth inning for a commanding 7-2 lead.
While the Maryland offense producing high run totals was expected due to its firepower all season long, it was the pitching that continues to impress in the most important outings of the season. It allowed two runs or less in every Big Ten tournament game, and that trend continued after Savacool’s two-run outing and quality relief outings by the bullpen.
The Terps’ bats have carried them to this point in the season. But Maryland’s pitching will determine how deep of a run the Terps make the rest of the season.
