Photo courtesy of Ian Cox/Maryland Terrapins
Washington outscored the Terps 11-2 after the first inning as the Terps fell flat on all sides of the game. Maryland baseball (11-11, 1-3 Big Ten) couldn’t get it going as they fell on the road to the Washington Huskies (10-13, 3-1) 12-4 and fell behind in the series on Friday.
Redshirt sophomore Kyle McCoy made his sixth start on the mound for the Terps. He won his prior start against South Florida where he pitched eight innings, throwing 106 pitches. Going into Friday’s game McCoy had an ERA of 1.72 in a team-high 31.1 innings pitched. The premier Terps’ ace has started every Friday game so far for the Terps.
However, McCoy had his worst start of the season, he pitched through 4.2 innings, let up eight hits, two walks and ended with five earned runs. McCoy was less efficient than normal. He typically lives through the strike zone, getting in front of batters and controlling any of the batters’ contact.
The Washington batters were able to get more control on their swings. They were also able to get ahead of McCoy on many of their at-bats and kept elongated innings with singles, which both helped push his pitch count above a hundred.
This was only the second time this season he threw over a hundred pitches and in his second-shortest stint on the mound. McCoy was awarded his first loss of the year making his record 3-1.
Senior Max Banks got his first start back from injury on the other side for the Huskies. He hadn’t started a game since February 28th. He was the Friday starter for the Huskies to start the year and had started three games before the injury.
In the three games he started before facing the Terps, he had a 4.67 ERA in 17.1 innings pitched and a record of 1-2.
The Terps started the game off hot as they loaded the bases in the first inning with no outs. They scored their first run of the game after senior Alex Calarco was hit by a pitch, bringing home senior Eddie Hacopian.
Senior Jacob Orr extended the lead to 2-0 with a RBI ground-out that brought home sophomore Brayden Martin. The Terps ended the first inning with only two runs scored after having the bases loaded with zero outs.
“It’s been a lot of times… this season where it seems like we’ve had our guys up either with the bases loaded or something and we really haven’t just buried teams,” head coach Matt Swope said after the game.
The Terps’ bats would die down heavily after that as they would only add four more hits and bring in two more runs in the rest of the game.
The Huskies would also bat in a run in the first inning after senior Malaki Knight hit an RBI single.
Knight was unstoppable against the Terps, ending the game going 3-for-4 from the plate, with two RBIs and a walk. Both of Knight’s RBI hits came with two outs in the inning.
The Huskies would get on the board again in the third inning and would do so in the next four innings straight.
One of the reasons for the defensive failures was the lapses that haven’t quite left the Terps’ yet. Chris Hacopian had two errors, making it eight on the year for the star sophomore, Alex Calarco added an error as well. McCoy and sixth-year pitcher Logan Koester both added wild pitches into the defensive lapses.
“We’re bad on defense. It’s as simple as that.” Swope said about the team’s poor defensive effort, “We’re just the definition of inconsistent right now.”
They weren’t able to get it going on the offensive side either after redshirt senior Reilly McAdams came onto the mound for the Huskies. He was the best pitcher of the game ending with six innings pitched, only four hits and two earned runs, along with six strikeouts.
McAdams took over for Banks as the Huskies’ Friday starter while Banks was injured and came out of the bullpen for the first time this season against the Terps.
A bright spot going into the rest of the series is that Calarco stepped it up for the Terps after becoming much quieter in the last few weeks as he hit his first home run since the UCLA series.
Calarco ended the game hitting 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Orr was the only other Terp to record an RBI on Friday as he matched Calarco with two in his 1-for-4 batting performance which included an RBI double.
“He’s a competitor, you know, he was getting pissed off in the seventh inning, I think we just need more of that,” Swope said, “Nothing’s going to change until it hurts… Somethings gotta change for us to be a little bit more consistent”
The Terps are still looking for their first three-game series win and will need to win two in a row against the Huskies if they want to make it happen this weekend. They have their next chance at 10 p.m. on Saturday.
