Maryland baseball shortstop Pat Hisle ran toward second base to hold the runner close before George Mason right fielder Logan Driscoll hit a ground ball through left side in the second inning Wednesday.
Had Hisle not moved, the routine ground ball likely would have resulted in the second out of the inning. Instead, it prolonged the frame in which the Patriots added five runs to their early two-run advantage.
In the Terps’ 8-5 loss in Fairfax, Virginia, coach John Szefc’s squad was unable to overcome an early deficit, extending its midweek struggles.
“We really played as bad as we could play the first three innings,” Szefc said. “We put ourselves in a big hole. Our guys did a really good job battling back.”
It seemed right-hander Hunter Parsons, who made his third start of the season despite struggling through the first two, was ready to halt Maryland’s midweek starting pitching struggles. He recorded the first two outs to open George Mason’s half of the first.
But like his previous outings, Parsons lost command of the strike zone. The Patriots scored two runs behind four consecutive hits and were helped by a pair of wild pitches, each of which put runners in scoring position.
After Parsons allowed three consecutive hits with one out in the second, pitching coach Ryan Fecteau made a change.
Right-hander Jared Price inherited Parsons’ jam, and he also failed to keep the Patriots off the scoreboard. The first two batters he faced hit singles, adding another three runs. By the time the second inning ended, the Terps trailed by seven.
Parsons allowed five runs over 1 1/3 innings. Price allowed three over the same duration.
But Szefc and associate head coach Rob Vaughn expect their team to rally from early deficits, just as it did Tuesday in a come-from-behind home win over West Virginia, and the Terps responded again versus George Mason. Right fielder Marty Costes started the comeback with a three-run blast in the third inning.
Even as the Patriots increased their lead, the Terps answered. Designated hitter Kevin Smith, after missing about a week and a half with a shoulder injury, led off the fifth with a home run. Moments later, Costes’ RBI single made it a three-run contest.
However, that was as close as Maryland got to leveling the score.
“We started off pretty slow. For some reason we’ve done that a little bit,” right-hander Ryan Hill said. “We did a good job keeping the energy up in the dugout. I feel like if we could just do what we did from the fourth inning on I think we can get it all figured out.”
Hill and right-hander Mike Rescigno kept the Terps in the game by combining to pitch 5 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. However, George Mason ultimately prevented the kind of late burst that led the Terps to comeback wins over West Virginia, Richmond and others this season.
The Terps loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, their last attempt at a rally Wednesday. But second baseman Nick Dunn grounded into a double play, ending Maryland’s late bid.
“We brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth,” Szefc said. “We’ve been doing that so much this year that at some point, it’s not going to happen, especially on the road. Hopefully it’s a wakeup call for our guys.”
