Before Saturday, the Terrapins baseball team hadn’t been shut out all season.
Despite a slow start this year, the Terps entered Saturday on a roll offensively. In the past five games, they averaged eight runs.
But the Terps went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position Saturday and fell 2-0 to Bryant at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium. A day earlier, the Terps offense had produced in a 5-3 win over the Bulldogs.
In left-hander Taylor Bloom’s last start March 5, he allowed just one run in seven innings, and the Terps won 8-1. Saturday, Bloom continued to impress on the mound. The sophomore allowed two runs on six hits and didn’t issue a walk in a complete game.
But the Terps (6-8) stranded 10 runners on base.
Trailing 1-0, the Terps had a chance to tie the contest in the eighth inning when they strung together two consecutive singles with one out. But they failed to capitalize a day after coach John Szefc’s squad overturned a deficit with four runs in the sixth inning.
Bryant first baseman Robby Rinn hit an RBI double in the ninth inning to add insurance to the Bulldogs’ (9-3) lead. The first run of the game came in the third inning on an error by Terps shortstop Kevin Smith. It was enough with the Terps offense faltering.
The Terps have struggled driving in runners at times this season. They stranded 14 and 12 runners on March 6 and 8, respectively.
Friday, the Terps offense and pitching staff gelled for one of the few times this season in their first win since March 5. Bloom built on that momentum Saturday with a solid outing, but the offense couldn’t support its pitcher in the Terps’ first shutout this year.
