Maryland baseball pinch runner Chris Alleyne laid face-down near home plate with his hands on his helmet, lamenting the tumble he took moments before as the potential go-ahead run in the ninth inning.
His fall midway between third and home, causing him to be tagged out, embodied how close the Terps had been to breaking out in recent weeks, and how often their attempts to emerge from a season-long offensive funk had come up short.
But in the 12th inning, right fielder Randy Bednar flipped the narrative. After Maryland loaded the bases against James Madison with a walk, hit by pitch and bunt single, he lined a go-ahead single into left field.
It was just the Terps’ third hit with runners on base, but it did the trick in a 2-1 win over the Dukes (15-16) on Tuesday.
“It wasn’t pretty,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “We figured out a way to score one more run than they did, and at the end of the day, I’ll take it.”
Maryland (16-17) stranded a combined 30 runners on base last weekend against Illinois and left 17 on in its matchup with William & Mary a week ago. Following its Sunday loss to the Illini, Vaughn said the offense “doesn’t always have to be sexy, it’s just a matter of executing.”
But the Terps, who average just 3.9 runs per midweek game, didn’t heed that request early on. They failed to plate a run in the first two frames despite putting multiple runners in scoring position in each inning and stranded the bases loaded three times in the contest.
In turn, starter Mark DiLuia wasn’t in line for the win when he exited his second straight gem.
The right-hander flashed his potential in six innings against William & Mary last week, allowing four hits and one run. Vaughn said if the Terps got at least five innings from the freshman, it would set the bullpen up well to complete the game.
Despite allowing a first inning run for the fourth straight start via an RBI groundout, DiLuia (1-2, 5.92 ERA) delivered a career-long seven innings. He struck out four and avoided trouble aside from the fourth inning, when he danced out of a bases loaded jam.
“He was just an absolute beast today,” Bednar said. “Put in a lot of scoreless innings, a lot of zeros up there. Just what we needed from him. But we expect that from him, also. He’s capable of great things and he showed that today.”
While Lee’s RBI double scored pinch runner Richie Schiekofer to tie the contest in the ninth, Alleyne couldn’t make it home. The Terps then loaded the bases but didn’t score.
Three frames later, Bednar’s single gave Maryland the lead before first baseman and reliever Kevin Biondic (2-0, 0.50 ERA) shut the door to clinch the squad’s third midweek win of the season.
“A big part of our team is just knowing that anybody can get the job done at any time,” Lee said. “That’s a really good team win. You have Mark DiLuia come out and really pitch well for seven innings, and then our bullpen comes in and does what it’s been doing all year for us and we find a way to scratch one across.”
