After falling behind 8-0 in the second inning against West Virginia, the Maryland baseball team might not have expected to bring the tying run to the plate in the seventh.
But following a five-run sixth and consecutive walks to start the seventh, Maryland was within reach, and the crowd at Monongalia County Ballpark became subdued. With left fielder Marty Costes at the plate, it looked like a golden opportunity to climb even closer, if not tie the score.
Then, with a full count on Costes and no outs, the Terps pressed the issue. Shortstop AJ Lee and second baseman Nick Dunn attempted a double steal. Costes whiffed at a breaking ball in the zone and Lee was thrown out at third, negating the promising start to the frame and curtailing the Terps’ comeback efforts.
After Maryland fell behind early, the team’s bullpen kept it in the game. Yet the Terps’ lineup couldn’t drag themselves back into the contest en route to a 9-5 loss, dropping them to 19-25 on the season.
“We set the next inning up and kind of run ourselves out of it,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “I love AJ’s aggression. I thought he had a good jump. [Catcher Ivan Gonzalez] just put a throw right on the money, threw the heck out of it. So, I’m never going to fault a guy for being aggressive. He was trying to make a good play and it just unfortunately kind of came back to bite us.”
During a disappointing year, Tuesday’s performance showed some of the shortcomings that have hampered Maryland’s quest to build on last season’s 38-23 record and reach a second straight NCAA Regional.
Maryland hurt itself with suspect defense in the first inning, digging a hole the Terps couldn’t climb back out of.
Starter Billy Phillips, third baseman Taylor Wright and catcher Justin Vought all made errors in the first, giving West Virginia a 4-0 lead.
“When you’re playing a good team like this,” Vaughn said, “you have to show up in the first.”
Phillips (1-1, 8.47 ERA) threw four scoreless innings in the Terps’ 6-1 victory over James Madison last Wednesday, but he couldn’t replicate that success against a team trying to boost its postseason outlooks.
With starter Taylor Bloom working back from a concussion, usual midweek starter Mark DiLuia has been reserved for weekend work.
The Mountaineers (23-19) kept the pressure on Phillips in his second start, adding four more runs in the second and dismissing the redshirt freshman after 1 ⅓ innings. Four Maryland relievers, however, combined to give up one run over the final 6 ⅔ frames.
That helped allow the Terps back into the game with a five-run sixth inning. Wright hit a three-run double, then scored following a wild pitch and throwing error from catcher Ivan Gonzalez.
“That big inning we had was huge,” center fielder Zach Jancarski said. “We kind of had them on their heels for a little bit.”
But with a chance to tie in the seventh, the strikeout and caught stealing squandered the chance. Then, after a leadoff walk in the eighth, a double play erased the baserunner.
In a nonconference game with little weight toward the Terps’ postseason hopes, which hinge on their Big Ten play, the Terps showed a resiliency that helped them to face the Mountaineers in an NCAA Regional last year. But it wasn’t enough to overcome its pitching and defensive deficiencies, and Maryland dropped its eighth midweek contest this campaign.
“That big hit after the leadoff man we get on base there didn’t happen towards the end,” Jancarski said. “We put ourselves in a little bit too big of a hole.”
