Maryland baseball dominated by No. 21 Coastal Carolina, 7-2

Maryland baseball struggled to get any offense against Coastal Carolina on Saturday, as the No. 21 Chanticleers were all over the Terps, 7-2.

Starting pitcher Anthony Veneziano stifled Maryland bats, giving up just three hits in five innings of work and striking out six batters. Right-hander Zach Thompson took the hill for his first start in a Maryland uniform, but he fell flat, giving up five runs and nine hits in just 3.2 innings pitched, throwing 84 pitches.

The Chanticleers were better than the Terps as a whole on Saturday, and the results showed it. Maryland struggled on the basepaths when it got runners on, and the team had major trouble in the outfield, allowing several runs to score from errors. Overall, Maryland had four errors on the day after none in Friday’s 10-6 extra-innings loss to Campbell.

Coastal began the scoring in the bottom of the first as Cameron Pearcey drove in Cory Wood on a RBI double to put the Chanticleers up 1-0. The lead increased in the third after Thompson hit the leadoff batter, allowing him to score after inducing a double play. Then, he gave up three straight hits, a single, RBI triple and RBI single as Coastal took a 4-0 lead.

Wood scored his second run of the game in the fourth as Zach Biermann drove him home with an RBI single. In the fifth, Coastal capitalized on two errors from the Maryland defense as Bradley Riopelle drove home Keaton Wiesz on an RBI double to increase Coastal's lead to 6-0. In the sixth, Zach Biermann joined the run scoring party, scoring on an RBI double from Kyle Skeels, putting the Chanticleers up 7-0.

Maryland finally got runs on the board in the seventh with some two-out hitting from Randy Bednar. Michael Pineiro and Benjamin Cowles got on via a walk and hit by pitch, respectively, and after two outs, Caleb Walls walked to load the bases. Bednar then drove two runners in with a single to center field, cutting the Coastal lead to 7-2.

However, the Terps weren’t able to generate any more offense than that, recording just one hit after the fifth inning and four overall. Maryland had as many walks as hits on Saturday, but it just wasn’t enough, as the Coastal bullpen after Veneziano shut down their offense. The Terps also struck out 11 times against Coastal pitching in the game.

Maryland used five relievers Saturday, the second straight game the Terps have used six pitchers. Daniel O’Connor pitched 1.1 innings, allowing one unearned run. Billy Phillips allowed one earned run in an inning of work. Will Glock, Andrew Vail and Mark DiLuia threw two combined innings of scoreless baseball, striking out three.

Maryland (0-2) hopes to finish the weekend on a positive note at 11 a.m. ET Sunday, as the Terps play VCU trying to salvage a win in this tournament.