The Terrapin baseball team had already lost the first two games of its series against Clemson, but leading 5-3 with two outs in the top of the sixth inning, the Terps were seemingly on the brink of salvaging at least one game and giving their eight seniors one final win at Shipley Field.
After trailing 3-1 through the first three-and-a-half innings, the Terps had stormed back to take the lead with two runs apiece in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings. With reliever Adam Kolarek pitching as well as he had all season, the Terps had the momentum and appeared to be on their way to their first conference win in more than a month.
But with one slow-rolling ground ball off the bat of Tigers’ second baseman Mike Freeman, the momentum all but disappeared in what shortly became the Terps’ eventual 7-5 loss.
Ahead in the count at 1-2, Kolarek jammed the senior with an inside fastball Freeman could only roll to Terps’ first baseman Gary Schneider. Schneider flipped the ball to Kolarek, who was covering first base, and it appeared as if Kolarek’s foot landed on first base just before Freeman’s did.
But first base umpire Frank Sylvester disagreed, ruling that Kolarek’s foot missed the bag altogether. Freeman was safe. Kolarek slammed his hands into the ground in frustration, and coach Erik Bakich sprinted out of the dugout to argue the call to no avail.
Just two batters later, Kolarek tried to come inside on Tigers’ slugger Kyle Parker. Parker waited on the pitch and crushed it over the right-field fence for a three-run home run that proved to be the difference in the game.
“When you play at the highest level, the game usually comes down to one pitch, one swing or one play,” Bakich said. “That wasn’t really the reason we lost, that just extended the inning. The umpire said he missed the base, and that’s his call, and we have to live with it. What we need to do better there is put that kind of thing behind us and close out the inning, and we didn’t do that.”
After a series-opening 18-6 blowout Friday night, Bakich said he was proud of the way the Terps responded during the next two days.
In the early innings Saturday, the game looked like it might be an extension of Friday’s. Clemson (31-17, 14-10 ACC) jumped on starter Eric Potter from the start, scoring two runs and leaving the bases loaded in the top of the first inning. Rather than allow the Tigers to run up the score again, the Terps (16-37, 4-23) — aided by two Clemson errors — responded with four runs of their own in the bottom of the first. The Terps carried a 6-4 lead into the sixth inning, but reliever John Dischert couldn’t hold the advantage, allowing Clemson to take a 7-6 lead with three runs. The Tigers went on to win 12-8.
The Terps’ disappointment was compounded the next day as starter Sander Beck and Kolarek held the Tigers’ potent offense in check for the first five innings. The Terps’ offense, meanwhile, attacked highly touted freshman Dominic Leone, chasing him after just five innings.
Unfortunately for the Terps, Sylvester’s dubious call and Parker’s home run were the only things they needed for the win.
“It’s tough because we feel like we have been battling like this all year,” second baseman David Poutier said. “We just haven’t gotten the breaks we needed, and then today there was just one play that was the turning point, and we couldn’t control it, which is hard.”
lemaire@umdbk.com
