BALTIMORE, Maryland May 12, 2014 - This may well be a breakthrough season for the Maryland Baseball Team. Despite all the commotion that comes with switching conferences, Terp Coach John Szefc has managed to keep the attention on the baseball diamond in College Park. The result, after years of dismal results in the ACC, is a winning conference record for the first time in ages, equaling a mark for conference wins, and, maybe most amazing of all, keeping alive, here in the middle of May, hope for a bid to the NCAA tournament as a representative of one of the best baseball conferences in the land.
All of this came to fruition yesterday when Maryland rallied dramatically in the 8th and 9th innings to beat Pittsburgh, 6-4, and sweep the weekend series from the Panthers. Maryland had routed Pitt, 21-1, on Friday, and stopped the Panthers again on Saturday night, after waiting out an incredibly long rain delay, by a score of 5-1. But yesterday, after leading for much of the game behind a sensational start from Southpaw Jake Drossner, the Terps found themselves behind, 4-2, going to the 8th, after the Panthers manufactured a four-run seventh inning. Drossner, the big, 6'3", 195 lb. sophmore went five and one-third innings, giving up not a single run and just two hits. He left the game with the Terps ahead, 2-0. Pitt's four-run seventh included three singles, a hit batsman, a walk and an error. Suddenly, the Terps were confronted with a two-run deficit with two innings to go. They went right to work to reverse the situation.
Terp third sacker Jose Cuas walked on four pitches to start the 8th. Blake Schmit followed with a solid single. After Tim Lewis fanned, Anthony Papio worked Pitt hurler Hobie Harris for an 8-pitch walk, which loaded the bases. After the Panthers changed pitchers, it appeared for an instant that Pitt might get out of the inning. Nick Cieri hit a ground ball to Pitt shortstop Dylan Wolsonovich, but he booted it, allowing Cuas to score and the other runners advance. Now the score was 4-3, with Pitt still ahead. Kevin Martir then hit a ground ball toward third base. Caleb Parry fielded the ball, but the only thing he could do with it, he felt, was get to third base ahead of Maryland runner Papio. Blake Schmit raced home to tie the score and Martir was credited with a well-deserved RBI. Pittsburgh got out of this inning when Charlie White grounded to shortstop. If anyone, at this point, noticed, Maryland would have the meat of its order up when it batted in the ninth. First, though, Kevin Mooney needed to get Pitt out in the bottom of the eighth. Szefc hadn't used Mooney, his closer, on Saturday night. But today he brought him in to quell the storm in the seventh. This would be a long assignment for a pitcher more accustomed to one or, at the most, two innings.
Mooney retired the first two Panthers in the eighth, but then hit Jordan Frabasilio and allowed Caleb Hess to single. Two on, two out, and Panther Freshman Catcher Manny Pazos at bat. Mooney went to work and got the freshman to ground out to Schmit at shortstop. Up came the Terps in the ninth. Lamont Wade leads off with a long triple into the right-center field power alley. The sophmore from Baltimore never broke stride, according to onlookers, and slid into third ahead of the throw. Maryland's hottest hitter, Brandon Loew, was next and he ripped a single to left on an 0-1 pitch. When Wade scored, Maryland had a 5-4 lead. The Terps were not finished yet, however. After Cuas fouled out to the catcher, Schmit bunted Loew over to second base. Then Tim Lewis laced a single to score Loew and give the Terps a two-run lead. The inning ended when Lewis tried to get to second on the throw home. He didn't make it.
Now Mooney was three outs away from a Maryland Sweep and a certain berth in the conference tournament, a tournament they haven't qualified for in nine years. Stephen Vranka was first up for Pitt, and he swung at the first pitch from Mooney. It was a fly ball to the outfield that was caught be Terp rightfielder Anthony Papio. Mooney then took matters into his own hands, striking out both A.J. Lardo, a sophmore from Baltimore, and Casey Roche.
The reason that the victory Sunday was so utterly important was because it mathematically eliminated any chance that North Carolina State would pass the Terps in the ACC standings. The Wolfpack completes its home series with Wake Forest tonight. It goes into the game with an ACC makr of 11-15. After tonight, it has three ACC games with Virginia Tech next weekend at Blacksburg. Even if the Pack wins all of these games it can only get to 15-15. Maryland, which, as hard to believe as it is, is in second place in the Atlantic Division of the ACC, having passed both Wake Forest and Clemson this weekend, is finished with ACC games, and has only the game tomorrow in College Park with West Virginia on its regular season schedule.
In other ACC games on Sunday, Virginia beat Georgia Tech, 3-1, to sweep their three game weekend series; North Carolina edged Florida State, 5-4, to salvage the final game of their weekend three-game set, Miami downed Duke, 4-3, to complete the sweep of their three game weekend series; Notre Dame clubbed Clemson, 11-3, to win their weekend series, two games to one; and, in a non-league game, Boston College beat Binghamton, 5-3, on senior day on Chestnut Hill, to split their two-game weekend series.
Now, all Maryland has to concern itself with is who it will be matched up with in the ACC. Here are the up-to-the-minute ACC Standings, presented in a tournament-relevant manner. The ACC has nominally split up into two divisions the year. But when it selects the ten teams to play in the ACC Tournament - and the ACC Tournament Champ gets the ACC's one automatic berth in the National Tournament - the Conference takes the two divisional winners and the other eight teams with the best won-loss records. You do not need to be a mathematical genius to figure out that this is the exact same thing as saying the ten teams with the best winning percentages get into the ACC tournament.
ACC Tournament Qualification
Two Divisional Champs and Eight Other Teams With Best ACC Winning Pct qualify
1. Miami: 22 wins, 5 losses, .815 pct [3, at home v. UNC]{38-14}
2. Virginia: 21 wins, 6 losses, .778 pct [3, @ Wake Forest] {41-9}
3. Florida State: 19 wins, 8 losses, .704 pct [3, at home v. Duke] {39-12}
4. Duke: 15 wins, 12 losses, .556 pct [3, at Fla. St.] {30-21}
5. North Carolina: 14 wins, 13 losses, .519 pct [3, @ Miami] {30-21}
6. Maryland: 15 wins, 14 losses, .517 pct [0] {33-19}
7. Clemson: 13 wins, 13 losses, .500 pct [3, home v. Bos. Col.] {31-21}
8. Georgia Tech: 14 wins, 16 losses, .467 pct [0] {29-23}
9. Wake For: 12 wins, 14 losses, .462 pct [4, @ NC St., 3 at home v. Va.] {26-24}
10. North Car. St: 11 wins, 15 losses, .423 pct [4, home v. W.F., 3 @ Va.T] {29-20}
11. Pittsburgh: 11 wins, 16 losses, .407 pct [3, @ Notre Dame] {22-27}
12. Boston College: 9 wins, 18 losses, .333 pct [3, @ Clemson] {21-30}
13. Virginia Tech: 8 wins, 19 losses, .296 pct [3, at home v. N.C. State] {20-28}
14. Notre Dame: 6 wins, 21 losses, .222 pct [3, at home v. Pittsburgh] {19-31}
Legend: Teams in Italics would not qualify for ACC Tournament if Season ended today; number in [] is number of conference games remaining. Numbers in {} are team's overall record.
No comments:
Post a Comment