Entering the batter’s box hitting .184 this season, Maryland baseball third baseman Taylor Wright stood with the bat on his shoulder for four consecutive pitches with the bases loaded in the 10th on Saturday.
Northwestern right-hander Josh Levy missed the zone with all four, and Wright went to first and threw his helmet in the air as shortstop AJ Lee crossed the plate, giving the Terps a 6-5 walk-off win over the Wildcats.
It was a fitting end for a Maryland offense that’s struggled to produce with runners in scoring position during its recent 3-8 skid. The Terps scored just two of their six runs Saturday with RBI base hits. The other four came via a sacrifice fly, wild pitch, double play and Wright’s walk.
“We’ll take what we can get,” first baseman and reliever Kevin Biondic said. “It’s a win. It doesn’t matter if we have zero hits or 15 hits. We’ll take what we can get.”
Maryland (13-14, 1-1 Big Ten) saved its best bullpen options for late in the game, bringing in Biondic for the ninth and 10th. Northwestern (8-13, 1-4) burned its usual late-game options earlier, forcing the Wildcats to turn to Levy, who had a 6.00 ERA in nine innings entering Saturday, with the winning run on first base in the 10th.
He promptly walked center fielder Zach Jancarski on four pitches, and nobody covered first base on a bunt from designated hitter Tommy Gardiner. Then, Levy also couldn’t find the zone against Wright, gifting the Terps a series-tying win.
“We’ve been telling our guys we need a come-from-behind win,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “The fact that we were able to come and grind that one out is huge for us and hopefully it gives us some momentum moving forward.”
Though it wasn’t always pretty, Maryland’s lineup did enough to erase a shaky start from left-hander Tyler Blohm and force a rubber match Sunday in its first Big Ten series of the year.
Northwestern catcher Jack Claeys homered twice off Blohm in the first three innings, helping the Wildcats to a 5-3 lead. Claeys’ third-inning solo shot was the last run scored off Blohm in his 4 2/3 innings.
Left-hander Sean Fisher took over for Blohm (3-2, 4.50 ERA) and threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings, with right fielder Marty Costes throwing out a runner at the plate in the sixth to preserve a two-run deficit and set up Biondic for two scoreless innings.
“Without zeros in the middle right there, we don’t win that game,” Vaughn said. “[It] gave our offense a chance to keep grinding away at things.”
The Terps had scored three runs in the first two innings to keep themselves in the game, highlighted by a solo homer from left fielder Will Watson. The lineup went silent until the seventh, when Lee singled home second baseman Nick Dunn to pull Maryland within one.
Gardiner broke an 0-for-17 stretch with an infield single to lead off the eighth. He moved to third on a wild pitch and bunt, and tied the game on Watson’s double-play ball.
Then, with Biondic going strong, the Wildcats bullpen imploded in the 10th, issuing a hit by pitch and two four-pitch walks without recording an out.
“Shoot, at this point I’ll take it any way we can get it,” Vaughn said. “When you’re kind of scuffling offensively, what you need is you need to see guys touching home plate, and we were able to kind of do that in some different ways.”
