Maryland baseball: Terps double up Spartans 6-3

The Terps travelled to East Lansing to face the Michigan State Spartans in the last B1G series of 2016. Both teams needed to win this series to position themselves for the B1G Tournament next week. The Terps drew first blood 6-3, behind a complete game effort from Mike Shawaryn and timely hitting by Maryland.

Maryland was able to string together two three-run innings. The Terps were led by Kevin Smith who had three hits, Nick Cieri with two rbis, and Madison Nickens scored twice.

Spartans grab 1-0 lead

The Spartans jumped out to a quick lead in the bottom of the first. Brandon Hughes drilled the first pitch into the right center field gap for a double. Long fly ball outs by Jordan Zimmerman and Dan Durkin enabled Hughes to score. MSU’s starting pitcher RHP Ethan Landon was on point, allowing just a single to Kevin Smith and striking out seven hitters through the first four innings. Shawaryn also was dealing, allowing only two singles after the first inning. He was helped by a terrific running catch from Marty Costes.

Terps put up crooked numbers in the fifth and sixth

Maryland broke through in their half of the fifth. Madison Nickens dropped in a single to right, and was then sacrificed to second by Kevin Biondic. Nick Cieri’s single brought home Nickens. Maryland took the lead when Andrew Bechtold crushed a ball to deep right center field for a double: Cieri just beat the throw home. Bechtold went to third on a ground out, then scored on a wild pitch to give Maryland a 3-1 lead.

The Terps put up another three spot in their next at bat. Nick Dunn led off with a single just past the diving second baseman. Kevin Smith laid down a perfect bunt that hugged the third base line. A wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position, and then Nickens walked to load the bases. A run came home when Biondic hit a sacrifice fly to right, with Smith taking third. An errant pickoff throw scored Smith and allowed Nickens to motor all the way to third. Cieri hit a double down the right field line to make it 6-1 Maryland.

Shawaryn goes the distance

The Unicorn made sure that Maryland’s lead held up. He retired the side in the fifth through eighth innings, at one point retiring 13 batters in a row before Hughes hit a bloop single to start the bottom of the ninth. Zimmerman doubled to left center field to make the score 6-2. Durkin hit a high fly to center that was just far enough to enable Zimmerman to take third. Matt Byars doubled and suddenly the Spartans had something going. However Shawaryn got Dan Chmiewlewski and Chad Roskelly to ground out, the latter on a nice pick by Bechtold, to end the game. Shawaryn’s final line: 9ip, 3r, 3er, 6h, 0bb, 6k, 107tp.

With the win, Shawaryn moves to 5-4 on the year and Maryland improves to 27-24 overall, 12-10 in the B1G.