BALTIMORE, Maryland June 7, 2014 - On this seventh day of June, the University of Maryland's Baseball Team added another new and breathtaking chapter to its magical journey through the elites of College Baseball. After not making the NCAA Baseball Tournament for 43 long years, the Terrapins last week won the NCAA's Colombia Regional by going 3-0 and beating national power South Carolina twice in 27 hours, breaking the Gamecocks' mind-boggling 28-game home winning streak in NCAA play in the process. The wins at South Carolina's home stadium in front of two roaring sell-out crowds, earned the Terps a berth in the NCAA Super Regionals against powerful Virginia, a team that spent many weeks ranked number one in the nation, and a team that never slipped out of the top 5 in any major poll. The Terps, on the other hand, were never ranked by the major polls. Today, this Maryland Baseball team took on the man most experts think is the best pitcher in the land, Sophmore Nathan Kirby of Virginia, who took a 9-1 record and 1.36 ERA into the start. It didn't matter to these Terrapins. Kirby was chased in the fourth inning, and Maryland beat Virginia, 5-4, behind Senior Jake Stinnett and a bullpen that only does one thing well: win.
The victory put Maryland ahead in the best of three series one game to none. The winner gets a berth in the College World Series. Game two is Sunday at noon on ESPN2. The Terps struck first today in front of a sell-out crowd on a sun drenched Charlottesville baseball field that affords fans a view of Thomas Jefferson's legendary mountaintop home known as Monticello. The game's very first hitter, Maryland's Charlie White - drafted today by the New York Yankees - laced a double to the opposite field. Lamont Wade then put down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to get White to third. Brandon Lowe got White home when he hit a Baltimore Chop, a batted ball beaten into the dirt in front of home plate, which then takes a high time-consuming bounce while the runner, White, races home with the game's first run. Virginia tied it in their half of the first, but one of the best defensive plays you will ever see prevented the Cavaliers from turning their at bat into a big inning. The run scored when Stinnett hit a batter with the bases loaded. After that, the inning continued to evolve for Virginia until the bases were loaded again with one out. Virginia's Casey Townes now drilled a line drive into the right center field power alley. White sprinted full bore into that alley, and, throwing all caution to the wind, dove head-first, glove outstretched, and somehow, someway managed to catcg the ball a inch above the rich green turf. Cavalier star Mike Pappi was the runner at third and, convinced Townsend's drive would fall in for a hit, wandered down the base path as White moved on the batted ball. When White made his miraculous catch, Pappi rushed back to third base, tagged up, and headed home. White, meanwhile, stopped his head-long slide on the grass and rose to his feet to throw to a cutoff man, shortstop Blake Schmit. Schmit caught the throw and wheeled around to fire the ball to catcher Kevin Martir. Martir took the throw and slap-tagged Pappi as he flew by. The umpire gave an emphatic out call, causing Martir, overcome with joy, to slam the ball down on homeplate in celebration. The double play left the game tied at one and the crowd in awestruck silence. When you look back on it, it was a game winner in every sense of the word.
Maryland executed perfectly in every scoring chance, scoring runs on a safety squeeze play, two infield ground balls, and one solidly hit double by Anthony Papio. Kyle Convissar wowed the huge crowd when he battled Kirby through a stunning 16 pitch at bat. Jake Stinnett beat one of the best teams in America on a day when he had absolutely nothing. He hit two batters in a row to force in one of Virginia's runs. He threw 117 pitches in 6 innings before giving way. The Cavaliers continued their assault on the Maryland bullpen, and every inning featured bases packed full of Virginia runners. When it was over, 14 frustrated Cavaliers were left stranded on base.
Bobby Ruse followed Stinnett and kept the Cavaliers at bay until there were two out in the 8th. Then, Maryland Coach John Szefc went to his closer, Kevin Mooney. Mooney got out of a big jam in the 8th and got the first two hitters in the 9th before the Cavaliers mounted yet another rally. When the game ended, there were two Cavaliers on base. Maryland will go for the Super Regional victory Sunday when they send 11-game winner Mike Sharawyn, a freshman, to the hill. If the Cavaliers prevail on Sunday, the deciding game would be Monday at 7 pm. All games will be televised nationwide on ESPN2.
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