Terrapins baseball freshman right-hander Hunter Parsons was a star at Parkside High School in Salisbury.
He was named the Bayside South Pitcher of the Year his senior season, and the Cleveland Indians drafted him in the 40th round of the 2015 MLB draft.
But Parsons decided to commit to the Terps, and the 6-foot-3 hurler thrived against VCU on Wednesday night in his first career start. The rookie allowed just one run in 4.2 innings to help the Terps earn a 7-1 win, their second over the Rams in as many days.
The Terps now hold a winning record for the second time this season and for the first time since March 5.
“I was a little nervous for my first college start against a good VCU team,” Parsons said. “Sitting back and looking at it, I thought I did well. I’m very happy.”
Eleven Terps accounted for 14 hits in their 8-1 win over VCU on Tuesday, and eight players combined for 12 knocks a day later.
Coach John Szefc’s squad took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when left fielder Marty Costes and first baseman Kevin Biondic hit back-to-back RBI doubles. It marked the third straight game the Terps (13-12) scored in the first frame.
The Rams (16-9) responded in the bottom of the frame, though, as right fielder Jimmy Kerrigan singled home center fielder Logan Farrar.
From there, Parsons started dealing. After retiring just eight batters all season entering Wednesday, Parsons retired 10 consecutive batters between the second and fifth innings.
The Terps offense supported their starter, too. Center fielder Zach Jancarski, who was put in the lineup shortly before the contest for outfielder Madison Nickens, hit his first career home run in the fifth to extend the Terps’ lead to 3-1.
“At the beginning of the year, we kind of had a big slice of humble pie in certain games,” Jancarski said. “It’s nice to see us kind of pick it up. It’s kind of like a wildfire when we start going. The hits just keep coming.”
Szefc said the turning point of the game came in the fifth inning when right-hander Ryan Selmer came in to pitch with the bases loaded and two outs. Selmer forced a ground out, preserving the Terps’ two-run lead. Szefc’s squad scored four more runs the rest of the way.
Selmer didn’t allow a runner to get on base in 3.1 innings as he earned the win before right-hander Mike Rescigno sealed the victory in the ninth. The bullpen, which has struggled this season, retired 13 straight batters to end the contest.
Parsons said it was comforting knowing he had a solid defense behind him. The Terps had committed an error in 14 of their past 15 contests entering Wednesday, but they did not make an error against the Rams.
“It’s amazing just knowing that any pitch you throw, if you get a ground ball, it’s almost a guaranteed out,” Parsons said. “With [catcher Justin Morris] behind the plate, it’s going to take a lot for a ball to get by him. It builds up confidence in yourself.”
While the Terps allowed an average of 11.8 runs per game in five midweek contests before Tuesday, they’ve shut down the Rams the past two games. Left-hander Tayler Stiles put together the Terps’ best start in a midweek game Tuesday, throwing seven scoreless innings. Parsons followed that up with an impressive outing of his own.
Szefc gave freshmen right-handers John Murphy and Cameron Enck starts in past midweek contests but saw them struggle on the hill. The fourth-year coach looked to another first-year player to take the mound Wednesday, and this time, it paid off.
“Hunter was very good,” Szefc said. “Bottom line was we pitched and played really good defense. That was a really good complete team win.”
Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated in the headline that Hunter Parsons earned the win. Right-hander Ryan Selmer got the win in relief. This story has been updated to reflect the correction.
