Generally, a 25-minute top of the first inning is a good sign for the visiting team and a bad omen for the home team.
On Tuesday, this proved to be the case.
No. 13 Maryland needed three pitchers and 49 pitches to record their first three outs of the afternoon. West Virginia put up five runs –– on five walks and three hits –– before leadoff hitter Luke Shliger stepped into the batter’s box.
The Terps put five runs on the board with big third and seventh innings, but the bullpen struggled and the early deficit proved to be too much to overcome as they fell to West Virginia, 8-6.
“We gotta deserve to win and we just weren’t good enough tonight,” coach Rob Vaughn said.
Sophomore right-hander Ryan Van Buren walked two of his first three batters and allowed a hard-hit single to open up the game.
The Terps immediately started to get arms warm in the bullpen in anticipation of a disastrous inning.
A double to the left-field fence by redshirt senior right fielder Caleb McNeely brought in two early runs, and then a single up the middle brought in two more.
“[Van Buren] walked some guys, and then he just got in bad counts with other guys,” Vaughn said. “And that’s just how you make good hitters really good hitters.”
After recording just two outs, Van Buren was pulled for sophomore left-hander Andrew Johnson, as Vaughn hoped to quickly flip the script.
However, more of the same continued, as Johnson walked three consecutive batters and allowed one more man to touch home.
Johnson was quickly replaced by junior left-hander Logan Ott, who recorded a one-pitch out to end the detrimental first inning.
“I think it’s just one of those days,” Shliger said in reference to the early pitching. “We have full confidence in every one of those guys every time they step on the bump.”
Ott allowed the Mountaineers to tack on two more runs in the second and third off three hits, due to a costly error by senior left fielder Bobby Zmarzlak and a home run by freshman first baseman Sam White.
Meanwhile, the Terps’ offense didn’t do much to cut into the seven-run deficit in the first two frames as only one baserunner reached base.
But the offense started to come alive in the bottom of the third inning.
Zmarzlak walked, Shliger singled and senior third baseman Nick Lorusso sent them both home with a double to put the Terps on the scoreboard, now down 7-2.
In the bottom half of the fifth, the Terps sparked a bit of offense with back-to-back two-out singles. But sophomore designated hitter Ian Petrutz grounded out to kill another possible Terps rally.
Things held firm until the top of the seventh when junior left-hander Tommy Kane allowed a solo home run on his first pitch.
Kane walked the next batter on four pitches and pegged the following Mountaineer to put two men on base with no outs. But the junior settled in from there, retiring the next three Mountaineers in order to set up the offense in the bottom of the seventh.
The bottom half of the inning finally brought some good fortune for the Terps.
Sophomore center fielder Elijah Lambros continued his hot streak to begin the season, smashing a two-run home run over the center-field fence. Lambros, a South Carolina transfer, is 4-for-11 with three walks and four runs batted in to start his Maryland career.
Shliger quickly followed up the homer with one of his own, cutting the Mountaineers’ lead in half and instilling some life into the ballclub.
With the score 8-5 in the top of the eighth, redshirt sophomore Nigel Belgrave threw Maryland’s first one-two-three inning of the game.
The bottom half of the eighth saw the Terps once again knock on the door as the tying run made it to the plate, but Shliger flew out to the center-field warning track to end the inning.
Junior shortstop Kevin Keister hit a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, bringing sophomore outfielder Zach Martin to the plate as the tying run. However, Martin grounded out to second, ending the Terps’ hard-fought comeback.
“I thought we grinded, we competed, we gave ourselves a chance,” Vaughn said. “We did enough to set it up. But we just gotta get that final hit to push it through.”
Ultimately, Maryland went through seven pitchers and nearly 200 pitches against the Mountaineers, struggling to find a consistent option out of the bullpen. Vaughn will look to find some answers before facing a top five team in Ole Miss this coming weekend.
“I think everyone in that locker room knows we belong [against Ole Miss],” Shliger said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt in the locker room…I don’t think this game hinders anyone’s confidence at all.”
