Maryland baseball: Terps tame UMBC Retrievers 6 - 0

After a night contest against Delaware yesterday at Harford Community College, the Terps (12 - 6) took on the UMBC Retrievers (3 - 8) for a noon game at the same locale. The Terps sent out left-hander Jake Drossner (1-0, 4.66 ERA) vs. UMBC's senior RHP Stephen Chrzanowski (0-0, 0.00 ERA), who was making his first 2014 appearance. As it turned out UMBC sent a bevy of relievers to pitch this game, each going an inning. There were intermittent rain showers that made conditions less than ideal.

Terps get first bite, but only one bite

In the bottom of the second Mike Rescigno was HBP with two outs. He advanced to second on a wild pitch. Jose Cuas then hit his team-leading second home run this season and just like that the Terps were up 2 - 0. But that was all the Terps could muster through the first three innings.

In the Terps half of the fourth Nick Cieri and Rescigno opened with consecutive singles. Cuas sacrificed runners over to second and third. But Krysthian Leal lined into an inning-ending double play.

Meanwhile Drossner breezed through the first five innings on only 55 pitches, retiring 11 straight UMBC batters. In the bottom of the fifth the Terps threatened once again.  Charlie White led off with an infield single. LaMonte Wade bunted White to second. White swiped third. Kyle Convissar hit a chopper on a drawn-in infield and White got caught in a rundown, being tagged out. Convissar, who was on first after White was tagged out, went to second on a balk. But Blake Schmit struck out. This was the second consecutive inning where the Terps had a man on third with one out and couldn't bring him home.

Things get too close for comfort

The Retrievers frayed some nerves in the sixth. Connor Hax walked on four pitches. Rob McCabe, batting less than .100 for the year singled to right. Drossner struck out the next batter. Vince Corbi hit a ground ball and just beat out the inning-ending double play. He then stole second and there were two runners in scoring position. But Drossner reared back and struck out Kevin LaChance to put down the Retrievers' rally.

Maryland went down 1 - 2 - 3 in the sixth and were clinging onto a 2 - 0 lead.

Jared Price came on for Drossner to start the seventh inning. Price struck out two in that inning to keep the Terps' lead at two runs.

Sloppy play by UMBC allows Terps to break open the game

In the bottom of the seventh inning the Terps finally broke the game open. With one out Leal was HBP. White bunted for a single; Leal advanced to third on an error by the first baseman. With a 2 - 0 count on Wade it started to rain harder and played was halted. When play resumed 10 minutes later Wade ended up being walked to load the bases. Convissar was HBP and Leal scored. Then Schmit hit a fly to left that White was able to tag up on. Anthony Papio stroked a single to center; the throw home was wild and Convissar scored the third Terps' run of the inning. After seven the Terps had stretched their lead to 5 - 0.

The Terps scored once more in the eighth. Montville started things off with a double. After Cuas grounded out Leal reached on an error by the first baseman. White hit into a fielder's choice that brought Montville home. The speedy White then swiped his second bag on the day. Wade walked and then both runners executed a double steal. But Convissar struck out to end the inning.

Alex Robinson had pitched a perfect eight and Kevin Mooney came on in the ninth to retire all three batters and complete the shutout.

Jake Drossner went to 2 - 0 for the year. Drossner's line: six scoreless innings, three hits, one walk, and five strikeouts. All Maryland pitchers combined limited the Retrievers to three hits, one walk, and eight strike outs. The Terps move to 13 - 6 on the season and host the NC State Wolfpack for a three-game series starting Friday.