Maryland baseball entered the final weekend of the regular season needing wins to keep its postseason hopes alive.
Sound familiar?
Last year, the Terps had to beat Penn State in their final series to clinch a Big Ten tournament berth. Instead, they were swept at home. This year, their easiest path to Omaha involved a sweep of Rutgers, along with some outside help.
Thursday’s series opener made that path tougher. Maryland fell to Rutgers, 6-4, and now sits on the brink of another season-ending disappointment at home. While there’s still life left for the Terps, they need all the remaining cards to fall their way.
“We have a mathematical chance with some teams losing, but you need stuff to go your way,” coach Matt Swope said. “Sad that we put it in that hand just because I think it’s a game we could’ve won.”
Maryland must win its remaining two games against the Scarlet Knights. It’ll also need Northwestern to be swept and Michigan State to lose one of its next two games.
The Terps averaged eight runs across their last seven games entering this series, scoring fewer than seven just once — an 8-4 loss to Penn State May 4. They scored the same amount on Thursday despite recording 13 hits compared to Rutgers’ 11.
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But Maryland also stranded 14 batters to Rutgers’ seven. Situational hitting, a common struggle this season, reappeared with the Terps batting 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position.
“We just got to be able to push through in a couple of those moments, and you can win the game,” Swope said. “But it just wasn’t good enough, as simple as that.”
It didn’t help that redshirt sophomore right-hander Brayden Ryan spotted Rutgers four runs in the second inning and buried Maryland into a three-run hole.
Rutgers catcher Matt Chatelle and right fielder Trevor Cohen both nailed RBI singles, while left fielder RJ Johnson lofted a 385-foot, two-run homer to center field. It was the last frame for Ryan, who limited the Scarlet Knights to one baserunner in the first.
Freshman Logan Hastings pitched the next five innings, and Maryland trimmed its deficit to one behind a solo homer from sophomore Chris Hacopian and an RBI single by senior Jacob Orr in the fifth. But the Scarlet Knights rebuilt their lead, as Chatelle added an RBI single in the sixth and Cohen launched a solo homer in the eighth.
The Terps added a run in the eighth with an Aden Hill solo homer, but left three runners on base. They loaded the bases again in the ninth with two outs, but senior Elijah Lambros watched strike three fly past him for the game’s final out.
“Really, they were able to get a few big hits, and we just weren’t,” Swope said. “It kind of just seemed like that pretty much sums up a lot of the season.”
Senior Eddie Hacopian said the team was competing with a different level of belief over the past two weeks. It underscored calls from Swope that they’d treat each of their remaining games as if it was Game 7 of the World Series.
There is still a slim opportunity. There was also that chance last year when Maryland got swept to conclude Swope’s first season.
The Terps will fight in hopes that his second year doesn’t end the same way.
