Maryland baseball starter Taylor Bloom stood 10 feet behind the mound in the third inning, rubbing the ball with both hands as he stared in toward home plate.
Friday’s contest against Bryant hadn’t begun the way the right-hander, or the Terps, would have hoped. After Maryland used six pitchers in Thursday’s 7-1 loss to Delaware, Bloom struggled to work deep into his outing in the second game of a five-game, six-day stretch.
Things worsened once Bloom retook the mound, and Bryant first baseman Chris Wright hit the second consecutive RBI double off Bloom to give the Bulldogs a 4-0 lead. Bryant jumped on Bloom early, inflating his pitch count and eventually forcing him out of the contest in the fifth inning.
With Maryland’s offense continuing to struggle at home, Bloom’s margin for error was minuscule, and Bryant’s three-run third inning led the Bulldogs to a 7-3 win in the opening game of the weekend series.
Bryant right fielder James Ciliento led the Bulldogs with three hits (two doubles), two runs and an RBI.
Despite Bryant starter Jack Patterson allowing seven walks in his 6 ⅔ innings, he kept the Terps off balance and frequently worked out of trouble, becoming the second left-hander to beat the Terps in as many days. Delaware lefty Matt Hornich held Maryland to one run on three hits Thursday.
Patterson (1-1, 5.82 ERA) surrendered one hit and three runs. Catcher Justin Morris notched Maryland’s lone hit off him, a soft grounder that would’ve been a groundout had Bryant (3-7) shortstop Sam Owens not been playing in a shift.
Patterson’s free passes presenting the Terps with opportunities to score, but Maryland (7-6) couldn’t take advantage. Second baseman Nick Dunn’s third-inning groundout scored designated hitter Tommy Gardiner and cut Bryant’s lead to 4-1.
In the sixth, Patterson walked two batters but forced an inning-ending double play. The senior screamed into his glove as he left the mound and pumped a fist, hyped up after denying the Terps’ effort to rally.
Patterson was pulled in the seventh after losing his command, but Bryant’s relievers faced similar difficulties in the frame. Shortstop AJ Lee scored on a wild pitch and Gardiner came home on a balk. With the score 5-3 and runners on second and third, Dunn popped up to end the threat.
Maryland’s offense hasn’t been able to cover for its suspect pitching staff on a consistent basis in the first few weeks of the season, and the quiet bats failed to make Bryant’s pitching staff pay for its nine walks.
The Terps’ shallow bullpen was on display with two outs in the ninth inning, when Kevin Biondic took the mound staked to try to maintain Maryland’s two-run deficit. Instead, Biondic, a senior who also plays first base for the Terps and hadn’t pitched since high school before this season, issued two walks and threw two wild pitches to allow Bryant to take a 7-3 lead.
Maryland went down in order in the bottom of the ninth, with two strikeouts and a groundout sealing its second loss in a row after winning its previous five games.
