Maryland baseball routed by Michigan, 13-1, to finish series sweep

A rain-soaked Sunday afternoon got the best of Maryland baseball, as the Terps were blown out by Michigan, 13-1, completing a weekend series sweep in College Park.

The game was pushed back an hour due to rain, and there was a 30-minute delay after the third inning as well as stoppages throughout the game to fix the mound. Michigan (34-11, 14-3 Big Ten) pulled ahead early and broke the game open in the middle innings. The rain continued all game, but the teams finished the blowout. Maryland falls to 23-25 overall and 8-10 in the conference after the sweep.

Starting pitcher Trevor LaBonte came into the series finale struggling on the mound with an ERA north of 5.00. Like Zach Thompson on Saturday, it seemed like LaBonte had control of the game early on, giving up one run in two innings. In the third inning, though, he lost control of the plate as rain continued to pour down. LaBonte ended up surrendering five straight free passes—four walks and a hit-by-pitch—and was taken out without recording an out in the inning, giving up four earned runs and two hits over 51 pitches.

Maryland ended up using seven pitchers on the day, and the staff walked a combined nine Michigan batters. It wasn’t much better at the plate, as the Terps managed just one run on five hits.

Both teams traded runs in the first, as Michigan’s Jordan Nwogu hit a leadoff solo home run and Maryland’s Maxwell Costes singled home Randy Bednar. But things fell apart for the Terps in the third as LaBonte lost control of the strike zone. He walked in two straight runs before Drew Wilden relieved him. Wilden limited the damage to three runs in the inning, as Blake Nelson drove home Jesse Franklin with a sacrifice fly, giving Michigan a 4-1 lead.

The Wolverines added on two more in the fifth, as pinch hitter Miles Lewis hit a two-run home run off Andrew Vail, who had struck out four of the first seven batters he faced after coming in for Wilden in the fourth.

Michigan had its big inning in the sixth, scoring seven runs. It started with Elliot Zoellner loading the bases without recording an out. Jesse Franklin and Jordan Brewer hit RBI doubles, Nelson and Joe Donovan singled home a run and Jack Blomgren caused a run to score as Taylor Wright threw it wide of Costes at first to blow the game wide open at 13-1.

The scoring stopped there, although the teams continued to play in the rain and the game surpassed the four-hour mark. Michigan’s bullpen tossed four scoreless innings, silencing a Terps offense that had made late charges in the series’ first two games.

The Terps will wait another week to play, traveling to Minnesota next weekend for their last road conference series of the season.