Maryland baseball uses late-inning rally to down George Washington, 9-6

Trailing 5-3 in the eighth, Maryland baseball looked to retake the lead against George Washington for the first time since the first inning. 

Bobby Zmarzlak began the inning with a leadoff single before Jacob Orr walked two at bats later. RBI singles off the bats of Luke Shliger and Nick Lorusso tied the game even at five with only one out. 

Matt Woods cannoned a three-run homer over the tall center field fence following a Matt Shaw punchout, giving Maryland an 8-5 lead.

But the scoring wasn’t over the Terps, as Kevin Keister followed with a shot over the center field fence of his own. 

“Your best players got to be your best players if you’re gonna win,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “Nick Lorusso and Mattie Woods come up and have two huge swings. Kevin obviously puts the icing on it at the end there and kind of put the exclamation point on that one.”

Despite facing a bases loaded jam in the top of the ninth, Nigel Belgrave allowed just one run, closing out the door for the Terps’ (12-8) come from behind victory over the Colonials (5-17), 9-6.

Junior left-hander Logan Ott started for the Terps for the first time this season, but he didn’t fare well. Ott only pitched three innings, allowing six hits and four earned runs. Ott entered the day with a 4.24 ERA, but ended with a 5.40. 

The Terps got started in the first with a pair of home runs from Shliger and Shaw. But freshman right-hander Max Haug settled in following the two blasts, not allowing another run for the Colonials. Haug pitched five innings, allowing six hits and striking out four Terps in the process. 

After no hits in the first, the Colonials loaded the bases with three straight-singles to begin the second. Graduate student first baseman Michael Kohn destroyed a grand slam over the right field fence the next at bat, putting George Washington ahead 4-2.

Ott allowed no more runs in the second and third, but gave up two more hits in the third before getting pulled for fifth year right-hander Kenny Lippman entering the fourth.

Lippman allowed another George Washington run in the fourth as sophomore catcher Tim Nicholson brought Kohn home on an RBI groundout to second.

The Terps threatened with scoring position in the fifth, loading the bases with two outs. But Maryland couldn’t capitalize as sophomore first baseman Eddie Hacopian flew out on the first pitch of his at bat to end the inning. 

Stranding runners was an issue the whole day for Maryland, with 11 runners left on base for the Terps against George Washington.

“That’s just a sign of the offense not operating correctly,” Vaughn said. “Our quality of bats is probably really high today. We just have to do a better job of not doing that one little seemingly innocuous thing that ends up blowing at the end.”

But Maryland got back onto the board in the sixth. Following a leadoff triple by Zmarzlak, Ian Petrutz came off the bench for a pinch hit walk, putting runners on first and third for Shliger.

Shliger’s move to designated hitter spot moved Petrutz out of the lineup, having started the previous 19 games in the DH role. Petrutz got out to a blazing start, hitting .382 and smashing five home runs in the first eight games. But the sophomore has hit a cold stretch, hitting only .108 and delivering one home run over the last 11 games. 

Shliger followed the walk with an RBI groundout, bringing Zmarzlak home to bring Maryland within two. Lorusso struck out the next at bat, ending the chance for more damage in the frame.

Zmarzlak finished the game 3-4 with two runs and a home run short of hitting a cycle. 

“Gosh, Bob was outstanding,” Vaughn said. “[T]aking the pitches he should take, he was on time…he didn’t have a cheap hit today.”

Redshirt junior right-hander David Falco Jr. entered in relief of Lippman in the seventh. Falco kept Maryland in the game, allowing only one hit in seven batters faced. 

The Terps retook the lead in the eighth with a six run-inning. Shliger and Lorusso tied the game with back-to-back RBI singles through the right side, before Woods and Keister slugged back-to-back homers to center, bringing home four runs to complete the game changing inning. 

“You [work] really hard at our craft and I got a good pitch to hit and I didn’t miss it and that’s just comes competence and knowing that each at bat you can do that,” Woods said. 

The game wasn’t over however, as George Washington loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against Belgrave. But Belgrave pulled through, allowing only one more run to secure the 9-6 win. 

The Terps will travel to Orlando next to face UCF in a three-game weekend series.