In Maryland Terrapins news:
The women’s basketball team added some depth for 2016 Saturday when 2012 Florida Gatorade High School Player of the Year Ieshia Small, who had earlier been granted her release from Baylor, announced via Twitter that she was transferring to Maryland. Small had struggled to find the proper niche at Baylor and her college career hasn’t live up to the promise of a player that ESPN’s HoopGurlz.com described as
“Almost every aspect of her play seems to become more refined and effective each time we see her in action. Combining speed and acceleration with sharp, attacking ballhandling gets her deep in the paint time and again. Once in traffic, she’s delivering the ball with more authority and making better decisions leading to more consistent results. In transition, her vision is allowing her to see the floor and there’s lots of zip on every pass.”
Small will sit out the 2015-16 season per NCAA rules but will have two years of eligibility remaining when she takes the floor in a Maryland uniform in the fall of 2016.
And in baseball news:
Stephen Strasburg made his second start since returning from the disabled list a good one for the Nationals. The right hander threw seven strong innings giving up just two runs on four hits while striking out a season high nine batters. He improved his record to 5-5 on the season as the Nats won the first game of a Sunday doubleheader in Philadelphia by a 3-2 final score.
The second game was not so kind to the DC squad. The Phillies jumped on starter Tanner Roarke for eight runs in 3.1 innings and cruised to an 8-5 win. The Nats continue to hold the top spot in the National League East but the Mets closed to within 2.5 games by sweeping the reds 2-1 in the completion of Saturday’s rain suspended game and 7-2 in the nightcap.
Meanwhile, in Baltimore, the Orioles had a whole lotta special going on. The O’s hosted the Cleveland Indians in a day – night doubleheader that also made up a Saturday rain out. Manny Machado (15) and Jimmy Paredes (9) homered in the opener and Ubaldo Jimenez pitched eight innings of shutout ball in Baltimore’s 4-0 win.
The Orioles got a trio of home runs in the night cap as Chris Davis knocked his 16th dinger, Travis Snider hit his third and Chris Parmelee blasted his fourth. Meanwhile, Chris Tillman and T,J. McFarland combined to hold the Indians scoreless for a second straight game and the Orioles won their fourth straight 8-0.
By virtue of the twin bill sweep combined with Tampa Bay’s 5-3 loss to Boston, Baltimore has moved percentage points ahead of the Rays an into first place in the American League East. But that’s only the beginning of the special. Baltimore’s win in the opening game was the 5,000th win in franchise history. And the last bit of special: The last time the Orioles shut out their opponent in a doubleheader sweep came nearly 41 years ago on September 6, 1974. On that day, the O’s won the opener 2-0 and the second game 1-0. The losing team? Yes, it was the Cleveland Indians.
And in that 1974 season, the Earl Weaver led Orioles finished 91-71 and won the AL East by two games over the New York Yankees. They did lose the ALCS to Oakland.
Finally, the header of this story has no relevance to the content. I was simply in a Fiddler on the Roof mood.
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