All season, the Terrapin baseball team has boasted a certain resiliency, having only been swept once all season until the past weekend – a month ago at Florida State. When they lost their series opener with No. 7 Clemson Friday, the Terps showed that same resiliency, clawing with the Tigers through 11 innings Saturday.

But when that game slipped away, so did the fight.

After holding the Tigers to just three runs in each of the first two games of the series, the Terps allowed five times that amount Sunday, falling 15-7 at Kingsmore Stadium for a Tiger series sweep in Clemson, S.C.

“It’s tough when you go 11 innings and lose a tight game like that and then have to turn around the next morning and play,” head coach Terry Rupp said. “The first two games were such hard-fought games on both sides that it was tough for us.”

The Terps (14-20, 6-12 ACC) hung with the Tigers Friday, thanks to Casey Baron’s three-run, 7.1-inning performance, and then again Saturday on the arm of senior Ben Pfinsgraff. Pfinsgraff allowed just two runs with six strikeouts over 7.1 innings, holding the Tiger lead to 2-1 into the eighth.

“I was happy with the way I pitched because I gave our team the chance to win,” Pfinsgraff said. “But I could’ve pitched better.”

The Terps used their revered “small ball” tactics to knot the game up at 2-2 in the ninth. After sophomore Nick Jowers singled to center to start the inning, freshman Dan Benick converted a pinch-hit sacrifice bunt to move Jowers to second, and then sophomore Joe Palumbo drove Jowers home with a single to right.

Entering the bottom of the 11th without any further run support, sophomore Brett Cecil surrendered a lead-off double to Tiger Tyler Colvin, who was then moved over to third on a sacrifice bunt. Two batters later, Tiger Travis Storrer hit one deep enough to left that Colvin was able to tag up from third and score the game-winning run.

The 3-2 loss sealed the series win for the Tigers, having taken game one 3-1 Friday.

Sunday’s game may as well have not been from the same series, as the Terps went from one- and two-run ball games to allowing at least four runs in three different innings.

The Tigers’ first big inning came in the third, thanks to continued clutch hitting by Colvin. Following three Tiger singles off Terp starter Brett Tidball (3-5), Colvin deposited a 2-2 pitch over the right field for his second grand slam of the season.

The bomb put the Terps in a 5-0 hole from which they would never recover. A two-run homer by Tiger second baseman Taylor Harbin in the fifth began a five-run inning that put the Terps down 10-2 and all but wrapped up the sweep.

Contact reporter Jason Fraley at fraleydbk@gmail.com.