For a Maryland baseball team that struggled at the plate in its losses Thursday and Friday, the sight of shortstop AJ Lee clapping after he rounded first base Saturday was welcome.
His two-out, two-run single punctuated a five-run, six-hit third inning, breaking the Terps out of a stupor at the plate that began in Thursday’s loss to Delaware and continued during a futile one-hit performance in the series opener against Bryant.
Behind a revitalized lineup, Maryland held off Bryant, 12-6, Saturday with a season-high 16 hits to end its two-game skid. Maryland’s 12 runs was one fewer than the Terps managed in their other five contests at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium combined.
“We talk about really trying to hunt the inside half of the baseball, swinging and creating leverage in our swing,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “We did a much better job with that today. If you look at a lot of our hits today, a lot of them were in the middle of the field.”
Second baseman Nick Dunn led Maryland with four hits and four RBIs.
After a breakout tournament last week, when the Terps (8-6) tallied double digit runs twice and notched at least nine hits in each contest, those bats fell quiet this week and Maryland’s pitching staff couldn’t cope with the minimal offensive support.
Vaughn rested regular third baseman Taylor Wright, who’s batting .196 and has yet to record a hit this week, for Tommy Gardiner. The freshman reached base twice, but little else changed in the batting order.
The results did, though.
Vaughn signaled for center fielder Zach Jancarski to bunt in the third following consecutive singles. But after picking up two strikes in the attempt, the senior swung and extended the Terps’ hit parade. Maryland went on to plate five runs and forced Bryant starter Steve Theetge (0-4, 7.02 ERA) an early exit.
“The two guys that paced our offense today were Tommy Gardiner and Ty Friedrich,” Vaughn said. “They’re the ones that kind of started that whole thing, because our first couple innings weren’t pretty. … Tommy leads off the third, base hit up the middle. Ty follows with a laser to right-center. And then, kind of, the things started rolling.”
Maryland squandered a bases-loaded situation in the fourth, and Maryland starter Tyler Blohm stumbled in the sixth, with third baseman Tyler Panno’s solo home run and designated hitter Shane Kelly’s RBI double narrowing Maryland’s lead to one.
Blohm allowed four runs on nine hits in six innings. The Terps’ offense, though, covered for Blohm (2-1, 3.47 ERA). Bryant (3-8) recorded 16 hits but struggled to drive runners in.
“The offense gave me that support,” Blohm said. “That’s something that I needed today on a day that I wasn’t my best.”
Maryland’s six runs between the sixth and seventh innings, including a three-run double from Dunn, broke the contest open and bucked its trend of cold hitting at home.
“It was a little warmer today, so that made it a little bit easier,” Dunn said. “Staying patient and sticking with my approach is probably the biggest thing.”
