Jake Stinnett
The Terrapins baseball team is used to lengthy bus rides. A trip to South Carolina to face conference foe Clemson can take up to 10 hours.
With forecasters predicting heavy snow and ice Wednesday night, the Terps couldn’t take the chance of their Thursday flight being canceled or delayed. If that happened, they wouldn’t have enough time to prepare for tonight’s season-opener against Florida at McKethan Stadium in Gainesville, Fla.
So at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, the Terps hopped onto a team bus and settled in for a 15-hour bus ride, which included a 4 a.m. switch in South Carolina.
“Our guys did pretty well,” coach John Szefc said. “The bus part of it was pretty helter-skelter.”
After the early-morning switch to a charter bus near the Georgia state line, the Terps had another five hours to go. Even when they arrived in Gainesville, there was little rest. After they checked into a Holiday Inn Express, the players had time for only a quick nap before a noon practice.
Despite the travel challenges, there were few complaints from the Terps.
“You throw some movies on, and you just explain to them that people work hard together to put this together.” Szefc said. “It’s not like you are asking guys to walk or something like that.”
Besides, the Terps knew they were heading into warmer weather. Temperatures in Gainesville were in the 50s during yesterday’s practice, a far cry from the frosty conditions in College Park.
“We were all out there in short sleeves,” right-hander Jake Stinnett said. “Even 50 degrees seems warm to us, so we couldn’t be more excited about that.”
For the second year in a row, the Terps open the season on the road against an opponent from the SEC, a conference known for its high attendance and frenzied crowds. But a year after playing LSU, last season’s national attendance leader, the Terps will be ready for the hostile atmosphere awaiting them.
“Our guys are pretty well prepared,” Szefc said. “I think our guys are, hopefully, pretty even-keeled. I don’t think they are going to get blown away by the atmosphere or anything like that.”
Florida averaged 3,511 fans last season, good for 12th in the nation.
The Terps welcome the challenge of playing against a high-quality opponent in a raucous road environment. If they want to make the ACC tournament for the first time since 2005 and end a 42-year NCAA tournament drought, they know they need to perform well in this kind of game.
“If you are going to play in the NCAA tournament in the postseason, this is the atmosphere and the kind of pressure you are going to play in,” Szefc said. “It puts our guys in that atmosphere right out of the gate and gives them a feel for what we are looking at down the road.”
So, the Terps said they can’t let any distractions faze them — not even a 15-hour overnight bus ride.
“Well, we have been playing baseball for a while now, so being on a bus isn’t anything new to us,” center fielder Charlie White said. “It’s not too big of a deal, really.”
