Maryland baseball entered its weekend series with Northwestern losers of six of its last eight. The Terps dropped two midweek games this past week against Georgetown and UMBC.
The Wildcats, losers of their first six games of Big Ten play and ranked outside the top 100 in RPI, presented an opportunity for Maryland to get back on the right track.
But the Terps’ bats went silent across the final five innings, allowing Northwestern to climb out of a two-run late game deficit to defeat Maryland, 6-5, in extra innings in Evanston on Friday.
Maryland jumped out to an early four-run lead, but let Northwestern creep back into the game. The lead was cut to two by the sixth inning, and the Terps’ offensive failure over the final five innings allowed the Wildcats to score three unanswered runs to snap their 10-game losing streak.
“That seems the way it’s kinda gone in the last couple weeks or so,” coach Matt Swope said. “I just reminded them that, hey, the first five or six weeks a lot of things went our way and we did well. I just told them that it’s gonna come from within, it’s gonna come from this team. Nobody’s gonna feel bad for you.”
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After a strong start to the season, Kenny Lippman allowed at least five earned runs in three of his last four outings entering the weekend. His ERA ballooned to a season-high 6.06 after his last start against Indiana.
Lippman bounced back with a solid outing on Friday, mostly keeping the Wildcats in check outside of a few blips. The graduate student allowed three runs in six innings while striking out five batters, his third quality start this season.
Lippman allowed a two-run homer to Trent Liolios in the fourth inning and a solo shot to Jackson Freeman in the sixth. Outside of that, Maryland’s (22-13, 4-6 Big Ten) Friday starter allowed just three hits on the afternoon, turning in his strongest outing in three weeks.
“It was a good start,” Swope said. “It’s one of those things again where, we get up four runs and you can’t lose a four-run lead. You can’t lose a game in that situation.”
A pair of doubles from Eddie Hacopian and Sam Hojnar got the Terps on the board in the top of the second. But the threat ended quickly as they left three runners on base after loading the bases to end the inning.
Maryland extended its lead to four runs in the fourth inning. Hojnar and Elijah Lambros singled to leadoff the frame, then Alex Calarco was hit by a pitch. Jacob Orr roped a ball to left-center field with the bases loaded and two outs, clearing the bases to grow the advantage to four.
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The Terps added another run in the fifth frame with a Lambros sacrifice bunt, sending Hacopian home from third to give them a 5-3 lead.
Northwestern (11-19, 1-6 Big Ten) received 6 ⅓ quality relief innings from Matt McClure after starter Nolan Morr lasted for just four outs. McClure allowed four runs on seven hits, keeping the Wildcats’ deficit slim for a large majority of the contest.
Garrett Shearer replaced McClure to record the final out of the top of the eighth inning. The freshman walked Orr before ending the inning on a fielder’s choice to strand two runners.
Freshman hurler Evan Smith replaced Lippman after six innings. The left-hander recorded just two outs while walking three batters. He was spelled by Logan Berrier, who surrendered two runs in 2 ⅓ innings to allow the Wildcats to even the score at five in the eighth inning.
The game went into the 10th and final inning, where Maryland stranded two runners in the top half of the frame and Tony Livermore won the game for Northwestern with a walk-off over Brayden Martin’s head in left field.
“There’s no one thing to put your finger on, there’s no one thing to scream about,” Swope said. “When you just get in these situations you have to execute. Like I said, it’s gonna come from within to get ourselves out of it.”
