BALTIMORE, Maryland May 8, 2014 - On a night when things weren't going so well, Maryland recovered from a three-run Towson third inning to edge the Tigers, 4-3, in the process winning their 30th game and the inaugural Cal Ripken Cup. The game pitted two Division I teams from the State of Maryland, and didn't disappoint the sparse crowd at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, despite the cool windy weather. Taylor Stiles survived the rocky third to go six innings and earn his third win against two losses. Maryland improved to 30-19 on the year, with four regular season games remaining, including a virtual do-or-die three game set at Pittsburgh this weekend and a non-conference showdown with surging West Virginia to end the regular season on Tuesday afternoon in College Park. West Virginia humiliated Maryland, 14-2, on April 22 in Morgantown, West Virginia. In losing, Towson dropped to 20-24 after beginning the season 9-3 against strong competition. The Tigers qualified for the NCAA tournament last season and defeated North Carolina in a regional game before bowing out. Towson has a weekend series coming up against Delaware before beginning play in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament in two weeks.
Maryland broke on top against the Tigers, scoring a run in the bottom of the first on Blake Schmit's two-out RBI double. Towson, though, took a two-run lead by striking for three runs in the top of the third. Peter Bowles got the Tigers on the board with a two-out RBI single, and Towson left fielder Kurt Wertz gave his team a 3-1 lead with a two-run double. The Tigers had eight hits on the night, all off of Stiles, but the only inning they could score in was the third.
The Terps staged a two-run uprising in the fourth inning to tie the game. With one out, Blake Schmit doubled, then took third when Tiger second baseman Hunter Bennett made an error on Tim Lewis' ground ball. One out later, Schmit raced home on Nick Cieri's RBI single to left. Anthony Papio followed with another single that scored Mike Rescigno. Rescigno had reached on a fielders choice that forced Lewis at second, and took second on Cieri's hit.
Maryland got the winning run in the next inning, and it was also the last run either team would score. The last four innings of the game were scoreless. Brandon Lowe singled with one out and raced to third when Jose Cuas also singled, but was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double. After Blake Schmit walked, Tim Lewis came through again, singling home Lowe to put the Terps up, 4-3.
After Stiles went the first six innings, Terp coach John Szefc called on Ben Brewster in the seventh. Brewster went the next inning and one-third, striking out three Tigers in the process. Terp closer Kevin Mooney then went the final one and two-thirds innings without giving up a hit or a walk to earn his 9th save. For the game, Maryland pitchers only gave up one base on balls. The three pitchers that the Tigers used gave up only four walks, and like Maryland, Towson's two relief pitchers were all but perfect. Matt Golczewski started and went the first five innings for the Tigers, and took the loss to drop to 1-1. Lee Lawler followed with two shut out innings and David Sapp pitched a scoreless eighth for Towson.
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