Maryland baseball starter Taylor Bloom suffered a concussion prior to Friday’s game against Michigan while starter Tyler Blohm was pulled from his start due to shoulder tightness, coach Rob Vaughn said after the Terps’ two-game set.
Bloom was struck in the head with a ball while warming up shortly before the series-opener Friday. He was later ruled out for the contest. Vaughn said he’s progressing well and will visit with a doctor to go through concussion protocol when the Terps return from Ann Arbor on Monday.
After the freak accident, Vaughn said Bloom suffered from headaches and sensitivity to light.
“We’ll obviously be cautious with that,” Vaughn said. “Any time somebody’s getting hit in the head, you’re obviously trying to make sure you don’t rush anything or that everything’s fine there. He’s doing better, though.”
During a delay of over four hours due to cold temperatures Sunday, Blohm continued to prepare for his start. It led to arm discomfort in the first inning.
From the dugout, Vaughn could tell something was wrong with his sophomore left-hander but is hopeful the discomfort wasn’t due to anything serious.
“Blohm, we’re hoping it’s really nothing,” Vaughn said. “He had some tightness in his shoulder. It was just such a weird day. His whole warmup routine, which is normally about 55 minutes, lasted about four hours.”
With one out, Blohm allowed a double and a walk before an error from shortstop AJ Lee loaded the bases. Blohm worked out of it via a strikeout and pop out, but the Severna Park did not return for the second inning.
Closer John Murphy entered to bridge the gap between Blohm and usual Sunday starter Hunter Parsons, who was available out of the bullpen because the frigid weather had caused one game to be canceled this weekend. Trainer Tyler Cronin applied an ice pack to Blohm’s left shoulder in the dugout after Murphy had replaced him.
Bloom (2-6, 5.20 ERA) had thrown the most innings of any Big Ten pitcher entering Friday, and Blohm (4-2, 3.99 ERA) leads the team with four wins. Their health will be key for Maryland’s late push. The Terps’ two losses to Michigan moved them at 3-5 in conference play, putting them in ninth place and outside of the would-be Big Ten tournament field.
Vaughn, knowing Bloom was injured, elected to be cautious with Blohm to protect his health down the stretch.
“We were already down our Friday starter potentially, and we couldn’t afford to push something in weather like that and lose another guy for next weekend,” Vaughn said. “Our trainer is not overly concerned, but we’ll have a better idea once we get home.”
