Maryland baseball right-hander Brian Shaffer struggled for the second consecutive start Friday, surrendering seven runs and five homers over five innings of work.
His missteps allowed No. 2-seed West Virginia to open a 7-1 lead en route to a 9-1 win in the opening game of the Winston-Salem NCAA tournament regional, relegating the Terps to the loser’s bracket.
The No. 3-seed Terps will play the loser of No. 1 Wake Forest and No. 4 UMBC in an elimination game at noon Saturday.
After a scoreless first inning, the Mountaineers took a 3-0 lead in the second with a two-run home run from left fielder Kyle Davis and solo shot from shortstop Jimmy Galusky.
An RBI single from center fielder Zach Jancarski — one of his three hits Friday — in the next frame pulled the Terps a run closer. But after Maryland left the bases loaded to end the inning, Shaffer gave up another home run in the bottom half of the third to make it a 4-1 game.
The same sequence occured in the fourth inning, as Maryland loaded the bases with one out and chased Mountaineers starter Alek Manoah, but again failed to capitalize. Then, a West Virginia long ball — Davis’ second of the day — extended the Mountaineers lead in the next half-inning.
Manoah, a freshman who moved into the weekend rotation in the latter half of this season, was relieved by the Mountaineers’ best starter, right-hander BJ Myers. Myers entered with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth but escaped the jam by inducing a popout and flyout.
The Terps had plenty of chances against Manoah, who hit four batters, walked one and gave up three hits in his 3.1 innings. But a pair of double plays and a lack of timely hitting kept them from scoring.
Myers went the distance from there, preventing the Terps from repeating their regular-season performance against West Virginia, when they scored seven runs in the sixth and seventh innings to earn a 7-6 comeback win.
The Terps managed four hits off Myers in his 5.2 innings and finished the game with 10 runners left on base.
Shaffer, the Big Ten Pitcher of the Year, never found a rhythm. He followed a disappointing start in the Big Ten tournament against Iowa in which he gave up eight runs (seven earned) over 6.1 innings with another uncharacteristic outing.
He exited after the fifth having allowed seven earned runs on seven hits, striking out seven batters and walking none.
Right-hander Ryan Hill pitched the next two innings, giving up one run. Right-hander Jamal Wade gave up a solo home run in the eighth — Galuski’s second and West Virginia’s sixth longball of the day — to make it a 9-1 game.
