Charlie White

The Terrapins baseball team will be hard-pressed to ever finish another game like it did last night.

With runners on second and third and one out in the bottom of the 11th inning, Virginia Commonwealth coach Shawn Stiffler decided to intentionally walk pinch hitter Andrew Amaro to load the bases and have a force out at every base in the 5-5 game.

Fans seemed to relax in their seats. An exciting, back-and-forth game was reaching a brief respite.

Or so they thought.

Rams right-hander Hunter Absher’s third pitch of the at-bat tipped off the glove of catcher Walker Haymaker and trickled to the wall. First baseman LaMonte Wade took off from third and slid head-first into home to seal a 6-5 Terps victory.

“I can honestly say I’ve never seen that in my whole life as long as I’ve been playing,” said left fielder Anthony Papio, who batted 2-for-5 with a double, home run and a team-high three RBIs.

Coach John Szefc and the Terps finally caught a break in a season filled with letdowns in close games. The Terps (17-15) have won just four of their 11 one-run games this season, including only two of seven in ACC play.

Last night they were just barely good enough against VCU (15-15).

In the continued search for a solid third starter, left-hander Alex Robinson notched another strong start. The freshman went six innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits with only three walks. He has now surrendered just four earned runs in 16 innings of work during his three midweek starts.

“[Robinson] is getting better and better,” Szefc said. “He’s cutting his walks down and he’s doing a better job of holding runners. But it’s just a gradual process. Sometimes you can’t speed things up.”

After right-hander Bobby Ruse replaced Robinson with a 5-2 lead in the seventh inning, the Terps still needed a solid performance from a bullpen that let up 11 runs on 12 hits and nine walks in 11.2 innings this weekend against No. 1 North Carolina.

And the Terps’ relievers initially seemed on track to deliver yet another letdown.

Ruse surrendered a two-RBI single to center fielder Bill Cullen that brought VCU to within one run. Then, right-hander Brandon Casas followed suit on the mound in the ninth inning with a 5-4 lead, letting up two singles to put runners on the corners. Cullen came through again for the Rams and grounded out to second baseman Kyle Convissar for his third RBI of the game.

The freshman didn’t panic, though.

Casas returned to pitch two scoreless innings in the 10th and 11th innings, giving the Terps their opportunity to strike.

Left fielder Greg Olenski was the only Terp besides Papio to record a multi-hit game, and he went 2-for-2 with a double, run and walk in his fifth start of the year. Center fielder Charlie White continued his solid play at the top of the order, going 1-for-5 with an RBI and run scored. He stole two bases and has 30 steals on the season, good for the third-highest single-season total in program history.

Shortstop Blake Schmit went 1-for-3 with a run scored, while injured right fielder Jordan Hagel and injured third baseman K.J. Hockaday each made appearances late as a pinch runner and pinch hitter, respectively.

But despite any heroics at the plate, the game still came down to Casas’ poise on the mound after allowing the tying run to score.

“A big point in that game was after they tied the game in the top of the ninth, Casas was able to settle down, make pitches and get guys out,” Szefc said. “He gave us a chance to get things going.”

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