On a day highlighted by their offense, Maryland was able to grab a convincing win at home over the VCU Rams. Ten runs on 17 hits helped the Terps put their home struggles to rest at least for now.

The Rams struck quickly with a leadoff home run on Tyler Blohm’s second pitch of the day. Brett Norwood got a fastball and didn’t miss; driving the ball to deep right-center field and over the wall next to the batters eye.

The Terps were able to strike back, however, on a single by freshman first baseman Maxwell Costes scoring Randy Bednar. This gave Blohm a clean slate in the second inning as he set then set down the Rams seven, eight, and nine hitters en route to a 1-2-3 inning. Blohm also struck out the last two batters of that inning looking. Daniel O’Connor came in to relieve Blohm to start the third inning.

Maryland began the second inning with back to back singles from Justin Vought and Michal Piniero before second baseman Ben Cowles reached on an attempted sacrifice bunt to load the bases. Junior Ben Irvine followed with a groundout to first base driving in the Terps second run and giving them the lead.

The great bottom of the second continued when Randy Bednar knocked in both Cowles and Michael Pineiro on a two-RBI single. Taylor Wright followed Bednar and promptly drove him in on an RBI double giving the Terps a convincing 5-1 lead after two innings

O’Connor allowed three earned runs and was able to retire just one batter before he was relieved by sophomore Sean Fisher in the third inning. The Rams refused to give up, getting runners on base and continuing to fight back in the game.

In the bottom of the fourth AJ Lee extended the Maryland lead to 6-4 with a two-out solo shot to left field. This gave him his third homer of the year and put him in a tie with teammate Josh Maguire for fifth on the team.

The Terps continued to put baserunners on in the inning, loading the bases for Josh Maguire and the freshman came through. A single up the middle scored both Randy Bednar and Taylor Wright and extended the Terps lead to 8-4. Ben Cowles followed up the next inning with a solo shot of his own; a towering shot to left center field extending the lead to 9-4.

This gave Sean Fisher a cushion to work with heading into his second full inning of work. Fisher shut down the Rams through the fifth before handing the ball off to freshman Drew Wilden.

Wilden would shut down the Rams in the sixth and got two quick outs in the seventh before allowing a double and a single to Paul Witt and Liam Hibbits respectively cutting the Terps lead to four. Andrew Vail, a freshman, came in to relieve Wilden, inheriting two baserunners but escaping the inning.

The Terps added one more run of their own in the bottom of the seventh inning after Ben Cowles hit the top of the batters eye, narrowly missing a home run. He was then driven in on what was ruled a single for AJ Lee. Lee hit the ball on the ground to the VCU second baseman who was playing in to cut the runner down at home; he was not able to get either out after bobbling the ball.

The Terps will look to add to this win over a good VCU team in their upcoming three-game set this weekend at Penn State. Maryland will also look to continue their success on the road, currently, at 11-8 on the road, the Terps will have a good chance to add to this against a less than spectacular Penn State squad. The Nittany Lions currently sit at 17-18 overall.

 

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