The Maryland nine traveled to Columbus for as important a three game series as they have faced as the 2015 NCAA baseball season winds toward postseason play. After playing themselves squarely onto the NCAA Tournament bubble when Indiana swept them in College Park in their last Big Ten series, the Terps’ weekend got off to just the start they needed in Friday night’s 13-4 demolition of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Maryland ace Mike Shawaryn took the hill making his 13th start of the season for the Terps and looking for a bit of redemption after a shaky outing last week against Indiana. The New Jersey sophomore gave up five runs – though only three were earned in just five and two-thirds innings against the Hoosiers and got off to a bit of a rough start against the Buckeyes before settling down and finishing seven strong innings.
Ohio State put up an unearned run in the first and another run in the second after issuing a lead off triple to Tre’ Gantt. The Terps, whose bats came to life in Wednesday’s 9-2 win over Towson, had put up a run in their first at bat on LaMonte Wade’s lead off double and Brandon Lowe’s RBI single. But that first inning was a mere appetizer. Even though Ohio State’s pitching staff entered the game with the third best ERA in the B1G, on this night Maryland’s offense must have seen them the way a starving man might look at an all you can eat buffet.
The Terrapins put up a pair of three run innings in the third and fifth, a five run inning when they sent 10 batters to the plate in the top of the eighth and added a single run in the fourth to the singleton in the first. By the time the evening was over, every batter in Maryland’s starting lineup had at least two hits except, perhaps a bit ironically, the Terps’ leading hitter Kevin Martir who finished the day one for four.
In all, Maryland put 19 hits on the board both the most the Terps have mustered and the most Ohio State’s pitching staff has yielded in a single game this season. Tim Lewis and Jamal Wade led the way with three each. Eight different Terps drove in runs as the Terps hit an astonishing 8-18 with runners in scoring position. Freshman center fielder Kengo Kawahara had three runs batted in with LaMonte Wade, Lowe and Lewis each picking up a pair. Jamal Wade, Jose Cuas, Anthony Papio and Kevin Smith drove in a run apiece.
Smith’s RBI came on Maryland’s only home run of the night – the freshman shortstop’s seventh of the season. The Terps had five other extra base hits that included a triple and four doubles.
Meanwhile, Shawaryn settled in throwing seven innings. He gave up just those two runs and walked three while striking out eight en route to matching the Maryland record of 11 wins in a season that he set in his freshman campaign. He is also the only pitcher in Terrapins baseball history to record 10 or more wins in back to back seasons.
The win improves Maryland to 34-16 on the season and lifts them into a third place tie with Ohio State in conference play. Both squads sport a 12-7 mark against B1G competition.
Still, it’s only one win in a series in which two wins are a likely necessity if the Terps are to have a chance to attempt to fulfill their postseason ambitions and a sweep would put them in a much more stable position. Last week’s sweep by Indiana dropped Maryland to 51st in the RPI and Wednesday’s win over number 255 Towson hurts as much as it helps. However, the Buckeyes sit a full 30 spots above the Terps in RPI and a road sweep of the Buckeyes should be enough (assuming Maryland then closes out the season with a quality win over Liberty Tuesday afternoon and a sweep of Northwestern in the regular season’s final series) to squeeze them into the NCAA Tournament. After that, all bets are off.
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