Pitcher Sander Beck said the Terps have “flushed” Tuesday’s 7-6 loss to George Mason.
Striding to the plate with runners on second and third base and no outs in the third inning, Tomo Delp found himself in a situation not unlike those the Terrapins baseball team had failed to capitalize on the night before.
Against George Mason on Tuesday, the Terps stranded 13 runners, including bases-loaded jams in the second and ninth innings, in an agonizing 7-6 loss.
For any speck of momentum entering this weekend’s series with No. 17 N.C. State, the Terps knew, that couldn’t happen again last night.
With one swing of the bat, Delp made sure of it. Sending a high fly ball to left-center field that Bucknell’s outfielders could only watch as it cleared the fence at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium, Delp turned a 3-0 Terps lead into a 6-0 advantage. His first home run of the year was more than the Terps needed in an 8-3 victory.
“I was just looking for a pitch up in the zone,” Delp said. “That’s all I was looking for. It was a simple swing – just get those RBI in.”
The Terps got that, and more.
“I think we did a good job of kind of refocusing our energy on just the way we’re playing and how we’re going about our business on all the little details,” coach Erik Bakich said. “We know that if we focus on those things, the results will take care of themselves.”
Starter Sander Beck pitched six shutout innings, allowing only two hits and three walks while striking out five. After Tuesday night’s fielding woes – the Terps (19-12) committed three errors and allowed five unearned runs – Beck (4-1) still played to his defense, keeping the ball low in the zone to induce ground balls against the Bison offense.
“Our defense has been great all year,” Beck said. “Even the best defenses have a tough game every once in a while.”
Bucknell (14-15) mounted a late rally against the Terps in the eighth, scoring three runs off reliever Jake Stinnett. But one night after an end-of-game collapse doomed the Terps to only their third nonconference loss of the season, there weren’t going to be any late heroics in College Park. Stinnett shut the door on the Bison in the ninth, and the Terps held on comfortably.
Offensively, they received contributions from up and down the starting lineup. In the upper third of the order, second baseman Kyle Convissar had two hits and scored twice from the leadoff spot, while right fielder Jordan Hagel had two RBI behind him. Delp’s home run came as the Terps’ clean-up hitter, and Rodriguez delivered four hits from the No. 7 spot in the lineup.
“One of our goals is to be relentless, one through nine in the lineup,” Bakich said. “When we’re playing well offensively, it’s a balanced attack and we are getting contributions up and down the lineup. … When we’re firing on all cylinders, we’re going to put up a bunch of quality at-bats, and that’s what we did tonight.”
In taking a 7-0 lead on the Bison after only four innings, the Terps displayed a resiliency that has often characterized their season – just not against George Mason. Afterward, Beck spoke matter-of-factly about the Terps’ stinker Tuesday night, a result that seemed sure not to linger as the Terps head into their ACC weekend series.
“As soon as the game [Tuesday] was over,” Beck said, “we flushed it – that’s our expression here – and today was a new day.”
dgallen@umdbk.com
