With the game tied in the top of the seventh inning, Maryland baseball catcher Justin Morris stood up behind the plate, looked down and pounded his fist into his glove. He had just dropped a foul tip that would have been strike three and ended the inning.
Three pitches later, Rutgers left fielder Luke Bowerbank made the Terps pay for the missed opportunity, giving his team the lead with a two-run single into left field.
That lead would stick as the Scarlet Knights won, 5-4, Friday in Game 1 of the series.
Emotions ran high throughout the game. Last weekend, the Terps lost their series against Illinois, and most media analysts dropped the team from their postseason projections. Earlier in the week, coach John Szefc said series wins going forward are “crucial” for his team, and the high stakes nature of Friday’s game showed early and often.
After recording the last out of the second inning, right-hander Mike Shawaryn pumped his fist and yelled, “Let’s go!” The whole Maryland dugout erupted after a play at the plate ended the third inning.
Terps shortstop Kevin Smith flipped the ball to the mound with force after the third out of the fourth inning. Rutgers catcher R.J. Devish had hit an RBI single, and after a short rundown, Smith caught him with a tag.
But the Terps trailed early, as Shawaryn struggled to put batters away and the offense couldn’t square up to Rutgers left-hander Howie Brey.
Smith, though, helped turn it around right after applying the tag to Devish. The sophomore led off the bottom half of the fourth with a single and came around to score on Morris’ single to tie the game. The Terps took a 3-2 lead on a bunt on the next batter.
But Bowerbank’s single undid that advantage. The Terps bullpen, which had been inconsistent throughout the season, started the seventh inning with a hit by pitch and two walks to load the bases.
After a single tied the game, the Terps inserted right-hander Mike Rescigno. Rescigno picked up a pair of strikeouts and almost had a third on Bowerbank’s foul tip, but Morris couldn’t squeeze it.
Smith provided more offense and emotion in the bottom of the eighth, hitting a solo home run that brought the Terps to within one. As he rounded first, he turned and exchanged words with Rutgers first baseman Chris Suseck, who had been one of the loudest members of the Scarlet Knights throughout the game.
Maryland designated hitter Madison Nickens followed Smith with a flyout, and he took his time getting off the field as the Rutgers defense had words for him, too. Both coaches came out of their dugouts and the umpires issued warnings to the benches.
Brey returned for the ninth and finished off the Terps in a clean inning to secure the win for his team. As Rutgers had their celebratory post-game handshakes in the middle of the field, the squads’ verbal sparing continued across the diamond.
