Some big questions faced the Maryland Terrapins baseball squad as they took the field at Jackie Robinson Stadium to face the NCAA Tournament’s top seed, the UCLA Bruins, in the regional’s final game:
Could the Terps rediscover the magic from their 2014 run through Columbia and upend another seeded home squad?
Could they recover from their first ever loss in an NCAA Regional under coach John Czefc?
Could they find enough cracks in UCLA’s vaunted pitching staff to score enough runs to pull the upset?
And would Crofton native Taylor Bloom be able to provide the Terps a quality start?
The answer to all the questions was YES. Maryland edged the Bruins 2-1 and joined Illinois in representing the Big Ten in the Super Regional round.
By virtue of the somewhat arcane NCAA rules Maryland was the nominal home team in the matchup. Taylor Bloom got off to a great start in the top of the first by retiring Kevin Kramer on one pitch and gave the Terps all they could have asked for with a huge assist – quite literally – from LaMonte Wade through six innings. Bloom cruised through the first two UCLA at bats retiring the Bruins in order on barely a dozen pitches.
Grant Dyer, normally UCLA’s setup man, got the start for the Bruins and was nearly as effective giving up a pair of singles through the first three innings. The Terps stranded the runner on first in both chances.
Bloom got into a spot of hot water in the third when UCLA catcher Darrell Miller reached on an error by Jose Cuas to lead off the inning. Miller moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Christoph Bono and to third on a wild pitch. Trent Chatterton then lofted a fly ball to medium right center. Wade circled behind the ball, gathered some momentum and uncorked a laser to the plate. For the second time in three games against UCLA, Wade nabbed a Bruins runner at the plate completing the double play.
An inning too far
Dyer was effective enough through the first three innings that Bruins’ head coach John Savage sent him out to start the fourth. Although he retired the first two batters, his control wasn’t as sharp and, as his pitch count crept up toward 50, he issued a four pitch, two out walk to Kevin Martir who had one of the Terps’ two singles.
Anthony Papio, who was hitless to that point in the regional, smashed a double off the wall in right center. Though not the speediest of Terps, with two out, Martir motored around from first and scored standing up to give Maryland a 1-0 lead.
Ace up the sleeve?
Savage elected to bring in the Bruins’ ace James Kaprelian, who had thrown 93 pitches in his outing against Cal State Bakersfield Friday night, to start the fifth. The junior Kaprelian, who most expect to be a first round draft choice, retired Tim Lewis on a routine ground out to second. Kevin Biondic topped a ball down the third base line but the throw from Chris Keck drew first baseman Luke Persico off the bag. The play was scored as an infield single.
Wade drove a 1-2 pitch over second base but Bruins’ second baseman had him shaded up the middle and turned a possible hit into an inning ending double play.
Know the gaps
The Terps pushed across an insurance run against the Bruins’ ace in the bottom of the sixth. The rally started with a one out walk to Brandon Lowe. Martir followed with his second hit of the day an opposite field single through the hole between first and second with Lowe scooting around to third.
Nick Cieri then had a key at bat. After falling behind in the count 0-2, worked his way back to a 2-2 count in a sequence that included a wild pitch by Kaprelian. The pitch didn’t get far enough away from the plate for Lowe to score but it allowed Martir to move up to second and eliminate the double play. Cieri then pulled a grounder to second that would otherwise have been a double play ball but because of the wild pitch turned into an RBI ground out.
A long road to close
The six innings Bloom completed represented his longest outing of the year but the freshman had thrown only 50 pitches so Belanger sent him out to start the seventh. When Bloom walked Ty Moore to start the inning, Maryland made the move to bring in closer Kevin Mooney for a potential nine out save.
Mooney retired Persico on a liner to right with Papio making a nice running play on the ball. Keck then reached on Lowe’s second error of the game and Moore scored on Kort Peterson’s single to left.
Mooney, who is Maryland’s single season and all-time leader in saves breaking the records held by Brett Cecil, has been lights out in the postseason but at times last year reminded me of former Orioles great Don Stanhouse who Earl Weaver called ‘full pack” because of his penchant for making tight situations even tighter sending his manager to the clubhouse where he would burn through a full pack of cigarettes.
I’m not a smoker, and the situation wasn’t entirely of Mooney’s making but it was certainly full pack worthy. The right hander relieved my tension by striking out Miller and Bono to end the inning.
Seeing the Terps bring their closer in for the seventh, UCLA did the same bringing in David Berg – one of the best closers in the history of college baseball. Maryland had a chance against Berg in the seventh when Lewis and Biondic put together back to back singles but Wade hit a high chopper to short forcing Lewis and Kevin Smith was retired on a foul pop out to Chatterton.
When he came out to start the eighth, Mooney pointed at Lowe to calm down and pump up the second baseman who had been shaky in the field. The first two Bruins batters hit grounders directly to Lowe who made both routine plays. Mooney ended the inning with his third strikeout.
Maryland nearly got to Berg again in the eighth when Martir slashed a one out single to left and Cieri drew a walk. The runners again moved up to second and third on Papio’s grounder to second but Cuas struck out to end the threat. The Terps needed just three outs to survive and advance.
Counting it down
Three: Ty Moore – strikeout looking
Two: Luke Persico lined out to left
Another full pack
Keck walks
Peterson singles to right and Urabe running for Keck goes to third
One: Miller strikes out looking! Mooney has the nine out save his 11th of the year and sixth of the postseason.
The Terps are Regional Champs for the second consecutive year. And now they travel to Charlottesville to face the Virginia Cavaliers in a Super Regional for the second consecutive year.
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