Second baseman Brandon Lowe hits the ball during the Terps’ game against Navy in April 2014.
Boston College right-hander Jeff Burke stepped off the mound in the ninth inning Sunday afternoon and headed toward the dugout. The Terrapins baseball team had runners on second and third with no outs, but it trailed by five runs. Three outs later, Burke had his first win of the season as the Terps lost, 5-2.
Burke entered Sunday with a 5.25 ERA, but he allowed two runs in eight-plus innings in the series finale against the Terps, who face James Madison at home today. Burke’s performance capped a weekend in which coach John Szefc’s team was unable to generate much offense in a three-game sweep.
The Terps scored seven runs in three games against the Eagles, who entered the series ranked second-to-last in the ACC with a 4.18 ERA. The pronounced offensive deficiencies came a week after the Terps earned a series victory over then-No. 25 Georgia Tech, in which they scored four or more runs in all three games.
“We’ve been really inconsistent the whole year,” Szefc said. “I really couldn’t tell you what changed.”
The Eagles scored more runs in the first innings (eight) than the Terps did in the entire series, and the Terps’ seven total runs tied a season-low for a three-game series. Plus, for the third time this year, the Terps failed to score more than four runs in a single game of a three-game series.
Earlier in the season, the Terps struggled offensively as well. In their first two ACC series, the Terps scored only eight and seven runs, respectively.
As conference play progressed, the Terps began to produce more runs. They didn’t perform at the same level every week, though. The Terps scored eight runs against N.C. State left-hander Carlos Rodon — a potential No. 1 overall pick in this year’s MLB draft — in a 10-0 win over the then-No. 10 Wolfpack on March 21. But a week later, the Terps scored two runs in a pair of losses during a doubleheader against then-No. 20 Clemson.
“If you can’t show up with a lot of urgency on a daily basis you’re not going to have success,” Szefc said. “That’s why we’ve had the lack of success we’ve had.”
While the Terps have struggled against mediocre ACC pitching, they’ve usually produced at least one strong showing a series. After scoring six runs in the first two games against Wake Forest, which currently boasts the 10th-best ERA in the ACC, the Terps exploded for 11 runs in an April 6 blowout victory over the Demon Deacons.
But against the Eagles, the Terps didn’t have that breakout performance and were unable to produce hits for most of the weekend. The Terps had 11 hits in Game 2 on Friday, but in Games 1 and 3, the Terps tallied a combined seven hits against a Boston College pitching staff that entered the series with the third-worst opposing batting average in the conference. The lone bright spot was second baseman Brandon Lowe, who went 5-for-9 with one walk and two RBIs on the series.
“Things didn’t go our way,” center fielder Charlie White said. “We didn’t execute when we needed to. Give B.C. credit because they made things happen when they needed to.”
In each of the last two games of the series, the Terps loaded the bases in the ninth, and the tying or winning run came to the plate. Still, their late comeback attempts were unsuccessful. Two straight fly outs resulted in a 7-4 loss in Game 2 on Friday. And after Burke exited the game Sunday, two more Terps reached base before the final out was recorded.
The Terps’ inconsistent offensive performances were part of the problem in a disappointing weekend. Szefc has preached consistency all season, but the Terps struggle to maintain a high level of offensive production week after week.
Nonetheless, the Terps have two more ACC series and a host of midweek games to work on their consistency and put their offensive struggles behind them.
“With baseball, there’s a lot of ups and downs,” White said. “It’ll really show the character of this team with how we bounce back this week and this upcoming weekend.”
