Terrapins baseball coach John Szefc has been coaching college baseball for more than 20 years, yet the veteran manager witnessed something he’d never seen before in the fifth inning of Terps’ game at VCU on Wednesday.
Center fielder Zach Jancarski smacked a pitch over The Diamond’s 10-foot wall.
“Nothing gets out of here,” Szefc said.
Szefc said The Diamond, VCU’s home stadium, is one of the hardest ballparks to hit a home run in. But on a day Jancarski wasn’t slotted into the lineup until minutes before the beginning of the contest, replacing outfielder Madison Nickens, the sophomore did something his coach could only imagine before Wednesday.
Jancarski’s home run, the first of his career, was the highlight of a 2-for-5 performance at the plate in the Terps’ 7-1 victory over the Rams. When Szefc’s squad (13-12) plays High Point (18-7) in a three-game series at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium this weekend, Jancarski hopes he can continue to contribute when called upon.
“Coach said I came up pretty big when we needed it,” Jancarski said. “It’s always good to help the team win in any way I can.”
Jancarski has struggled to stay in the lineup this season. The sophomore started three of the Terps’ first four games, going 2-for-8 at the plate, but his playing time decreased as Szefc began giving younger players a chance to prove themselves, When freshman left fielder Marty Costes got hot at the plate, he took Jancarski’s spot in the outfield.
While Jancarski has started three contests since that stretch, he’s appeared in 18 of the Terps’ 25 games, mostly as a pinch hitter or a defensive replacement. Jancarski is currently batting .217, the fourth-worst mark on the team among those who’ve attempted at least five at-bats.
Nonetheless, Szefc wants to see players step up when they receive opportunities. Jancarski did that Wednesday.
“There’s a lot of guys that deserve to play,” Szefc said Sunday. “You just try to pick your spots where you can put guys in who you think are going to be successful.”
After hitting into a double play in his first at-bat, Jancarski rebounded in the fifth against right-hander Tanner Winters.
At first, Jancarski didn’t know whether the ball was high enough to clear the fence. But once he heard the players in the Terps’ dugout yelling in celebration, the 6-foot, 184-pound outfielder knew the ball was gone.
“Those guys were pretty jacked up,” Szefc said. “That was big for our team at the time. To go from 2-1 to 3-1, that’s huge, man.”
The Terps rode the momentum from Jancarski’s bomb the rest of the way, as they scored four more runs to seal their second victory in two days against the Rams.
Szefc said he’s coached at The Diamond about 15 times and insists it’s the hardest ballpark to hit a home run in that he’s seen on the East Coast. He compared its wall, which is 2 feet taller than the wall at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium, to only the ballparks at Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine.
But the field dimensions didn’t affect Jancarski, who accomplished something in his sixth start of the year that no one else in the game could.
“That was a pretty good feeling,” Jancarski said. “That has to be pretty high up there on the list of my two years here.”
