Even though the Terrapin baseball team didn’t win the series, players came away from their weekend set against No. 10 Virginia feeling very confident about the rest of the season.

The Terps were one inning away from winning the series opener on Friday night, instead losing 7-4, and managed an 8-7 victory on Saturday, thanks to timely hitting and solid pitching from ace Scott Swinson.

Despite letting yesterday’s game get away from them – the Cavaliers won the match 17-2 – coach Terry Rupp was pleased with the way his team played.

“I’m seeing a lot of positive signs offensively, and especially on the mound,” Rupp said. “We got two quality starts, which we needed badly, and I think we are playing our best baseball of the year. Unfortunately, we just let [yesterday’s] game get away from us.”

The Terps decided to switch up the weekend rotation after a disastrous series with Florida State, replacing left-hander Eric Potter with fellow sophomore Brett Harman. The move almost paid immediate dividends.

Using a hard fastball and curveball and a newly developed change-up, Harman was able to keep the Cavalier hitters off balanced as the Terps clung to a 4-2 lead entering the seventh inning. Then he tired, and Virginia came back to win the game 7-4.

Harman pitched six innings, allowing four earned runs while striking out seven, and Rupp was encouraged by what he saw.

“Brett has thrown really well in the midweek games, and he has really done a great job developing his change-up to complement his hard fastball and hard curveball,” Rupp said. “I think he just ran out of gas down the stretch. We were just one or two plays away from winning that game and winning the series.”

After the tough loss Friday, the Terps showed some fight by coming from behind to win the second game thanks to an offense that, after recent struggles, was finally able to string together quality at-bats.

With the Terps trailing 5-4 in the eighth inning, center fielder Dan Benick stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. Needing a big hit to start a rally, Benick did more than that, homering over the left-field fence to give the Terps the lead for good.

“I was just looking for a pitch up in the zone that I could drive,” Benick said. “I waited it out and then finally got one, and, luckily, I was able to get the bat on it, and it went out.”

Benick was part of an offense that Rupp said is finally starting to get into the groove after a stretch of the season in which it seemed the team was struggling to put together big innings.

David Poutier had a huge series, driving in all four runs on Friday night and raking four hits in the series to raise his batting average to .320. Mike Murphy also had a big series when he got the ball rolling on Saturday against Cavalier star Andrew Carraway when he hit his sixth home run to give the Terps a 2-0 lead early.

The Terps will need the offensive production to continue as they enter a crucial part of the season with winnable series against Virginia Tech and Duke looming. Rupp said he is confident the team is finally starting to put everything together.

“We haven’t had those types of quality at-bats that we were able to put together this weekend,” Rupp said. “I think we are starting to peak at the right time, so I feel very confident about the direction this team is headed in, not only for the midweek but for next weekend, also.”

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