Earlier this season, Maryland baseball coach John Szefc said his team wouldn’t have a good chance to win if they struck out more than seven times in a game.
That proved to be true in the Terps’ game at West Virginia on Tuesday night. Maryland struck out 16 times, as the offense’s struggles carried over from this past weekend in the Terps’ 4-1 loss to the Mountaineers.
Maryland is fighting for spots in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments with just six contests remaining, but it hasn’t helped its case by losing three of its previous four games.
“It wasn’t too pretty,” coach John Szefc said. “You have to play a complete game if you want to win. We didn’t do that.”
This past weekend in a three-game series against Illinois, the Terps (25-22) racked up a combined nine runs in their series loss, moving them down to seventh in the Big Ten standings.
Szefc made changes in the lineup Tuesday, moving right fielder Anthony Papio to the leadoff spot, while the usual leadoff hitter, designated hitter Madison Nickens, hit sixth.
Still, Maryland’s offense struggled, going 2-for-16 at the plate with runners on base.
“I’m just trying to have a tough at-bat up there, so it didn’t really matter where I was at,” Papio said. “It all comes down to the same stuff. They were just trying to change some things up and see how it worked out.”
Freshman right-hander Hunter Parsons, who entered with a 3.42 ERA, put together a performance that Szefc said he would take in a “heartbeat.”
The Fruitland native allowed two runs and had a career-high six strikeouts in six innings, but he didn’t receive much run support as he took his first loss of his Terps’ career. West Virginia right-hander Michael Grove, meanwhile, did not allow an earned run in six innings while striking out 13 Terps.
Maryland’s struggles extended to the field, as the team committed three errors. The defense has improved since struggling at the beginning of the season, but those concerns resurfaced Tuesday.
The Terps took the lead in the fourth inning, though, when first baseman Kevin Biondic singled in Nickens.
Parsons allowed one hit entering the fourth inning. But he gave up two hits in the frame – including a home run by first baseman John Cramer – to allow the Mountaineers (28-19) to take a 2-1 lead.
“I was just trying to give the team a chance to stay in the game,” Parsons said of pitching after giving up his team’s lead.
In the seventh, right-hander Andrew Green replaced Parsons but gave up two more runs in 1.2 innings. The insurance runs were of no effect, however, as Maryland failed to score the rest of the contest.
While Tuesday’s loss hurts the Terps’ chances of qualifying for the NCAA tournament, they still remain seventh in the conference. This weekend against Rutgers, though, Papio said the Terps offense will need to solve its issues if Maryland wants a spot in the Big Ten tournament, which the top eight conference teams qualify for.
“Obviously we’re going to have to do some things offensively and make some changes,” Papio said. “Tonight was a tough loss, but you got to have a short-term memory and move past it. Ultimately, we got to take care of business in conference. That’s our goal.”
